Buying Local

Check out this video about buying local...developed by the Hancock Harvest Council. You can learn more about them www.hancockharvestcouncil.com. Tuttle's will be participating in their winter farmers market this year at the Greenfield Fairgrounds the first and third Saturday of the month from 10AM-1PM. Come and visit us.

Caramel Apple Festvial

We had a great turnout for our Caramel Apple Festival on Saturday. Here are some pictures...

The apple pie contest was a big success. Below is winner: Suzie Wallach with her Crumbly Caramel Apple Pie. Burt Jones, Hancock County Extension Educator was our judge. The winning pie was a Crumbly Caramel Apple Pie
Pie Crust:
3 C. white flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 C. vegetable oil
7 1/2 tsp. Tbs. ICE water

Sift flour and salt. Mix ice water and oil with a fork until milky in color. Add flour to mixture. Stir. Cut in half. Wrap in two sheets of plastic wrap and refrigerate while making apple mixture.

Apple Mixture:
1/4 C. sugar
1/4 C. white flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
6 thinly sliced Paula Red Apples (Tuttles)

Mix dry ingredients together then add to apples until coated.

Roll out pie dough between two sheets of waxed paper. Flip rolled out dough into pie plate.

Add apple mixture to pie plate.

Crumble:
1/2 C. Butter, melted
1/2 C. Old Fashioned Oats
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C. flour
Mix together with fork until the mixture is crumbly.

Add to top of pie mixture.

Sprinkle 1/2 C. chopped walnuts on top of crumble. Drizzle with 15 melted caramels plus 1 Tbsp milk that have been melted in microwave. Bake this way or add a second top crust.

Bake at 375 degrees with aluminum foil covered edges for 25 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake for another 30 minutes or until browned on top. Serve warm with ice crea.

Salsa Anyone?

Labor Day weekend is a great time for making salsa and canning tomatoes. Our half bushels of canning tomatoes are only $10 right now. Here's a look at them picking tomatoes in the field...

Fall is Here!

Fall is officially here at the orchard. The air has turned somewhat cooler...the sounds of children in the orchard picking apples...the smell of caramel in the store from the fresh caramel apples. All these are signs of fall here at Tuttles.

With fall comes apples...right now we have the following apples available:

In the store: Cortland, Gala, Early Blaze, Ozark Gold, and Paula Red
For u-pick: Early Blaze, Gala, and Cortland

Here's a bit about each of these apples...

Cortland: Cortland is a cross of McIntosh and Ben Davis. It is sweet with a hint of tartness, juicy, and have tender, snow white flesh. Excellent for eating, salads, sauce, pies and baking. Good for freezing. Cortland apples are wonderful for kabobs, fruit plates and garnishes because they don't turn brown quickly when cut.

The Cortland apple was developed by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station in 1898.

Early Blaze: A cross between Jonathan and Grimes Golden, these semi-tart apples are crisp with just the right mixture of sweetness and zip for fresh off the tree eating. Smooth striped skin is cherry red and very attractive. It is an early apple, as its name implies, and is said to make the very best pies.

Gala: This is a favorite apple of kids and those with gourmet taste because of its good looks and sweet taste. It is a strikingly attractive apple. The bright yellow skin is finely stippled with red, as if airbrushed, and the result is a near-neon intensity. From across a room you'd think you were looking at a peach. Gala was developed in New Zealand by J. H. Kidd, crossing Golden Delicious and his own Kidd's Orange Red. The work was done in the 1920s, but the apple wasn't named and introduced until the 1960s. Gala is distinguished by a fine, firm and crisp texture combined with a sweet, very juicy and spicy rich taste. Gala is good for all purposes, including raw in salads. Tom Vorbeck of Applesource says that a typical first comment of people biting into one is "Best apple I ever had in my life." When cooked, Gala strikes some people as bland, but it can be dried with good results. Gala is also used in cider blends.

Ozark Gold:Very similar to Golden Delicious, but ripening three weeks earlier, this grandchild of Golden Delicious has a smooth, attractive, often blushed finish. It’s flavor is mild and juicy with some tartness at the beginning of the season. When properly matured, flavor improves greatly.

Paula Red: A red apple that matures in summer, Paulared has beautiful solid red blush color far ahead of other apples. Flavor is tart, light to creamy flesh and is equally food for eating, sauces, juice or pies.

Indiana State Fair Masters

Tuttles was recognized today at the Indiana State Fair as one of the 2009 Indiana State Fair Masters. Every year two groups who have made longtime commitment to the Indiana State Fair and the promotion of traditional arts in Indiana are recognized. Here's a photo from the award ceremony today. You can see the display on the second floor of the Home and Family Arts building at the Indiana State Fair.

Historical Societies Milk Can Dinner

Many of you joined the Hancock County Historical Society's Milk Can Dinner on Saturday afternoon. It was a big success!! Here are some photos of the evening:

Cutting Out the Agrimaze

How do you make a corn maze anyways? Well, there are many different ways to make a maze...some farms use GPS systems on their tractors to plant the corn in just the right place. Here at Tuttle's we do ours by hand. You can read about how they plant the maze here. Then, yesterday, we spent the day cutting out the maze. What does that entail? First, Helen, our resident maze expert draws up the maze on graph paper. She goes out and counts the rows of corn to see exactly how big the area is where the corn is planted for the maze, and then designs a maze that fits into that space. Next, they go out into the maze and count off the rows and begin to cut the path for the maze. They use tiller with a special implement to cut each path for the maze. Here are some pictures of the corn maze cutting...

Summertime in the Field

The blackberries are growing...they should be ready by Mid-August.

Lots of green beans to pick.

Apples are growing quite nicely. We have been so blessed this year with weather that has been very good for apples. It looks like we will have a really nice crop for the first time in several years.
Mike in the cantaloupe patch...another two weeks and they should be ripe.

Green peppers are starting to ripen.

Summertime in the Field