“A Is For Apple”

~ Elizabeth

I grew up reading Edward Lear’s nonsense poetry. I gained a love of limericks, imagined the owl and the pussycat in love, and memorized an alphabet series beginning with “A was once an Apple Pie, pidy, widy, tidy, pidy, nice insidy Apple Pie.” An early illustration for the poem is on the left above. Silly for sure, but it really does roll off the tongue in a satisfying way. My grandfather loved such word play and had us also learn a counting rhyme beginning with “One old ox opening oysters.”

I make pies three specific times a year. Earlier I showed you the peach blueberry pie I do when the two fruits are ripe in season. Then in September I make an apple pie with several varieties of apples from the local farmer. In December I bake two pumpkin and one mincemeat pies. This morning it was the September apple pie with Macintosh, Cortland and Gala apples. Above the photo on the right shows the tools and fruit laid out for the pie. I would show you the finished product but it has already been 1/3 eaten. I didn’t take a picture quickly enough! At least this time it was Charlie, not our Australian Shepherd who ate it. A few years ago she got on her hind legs, pulled the cooling rack over to the edge of the counter, and ate out the middle of the pie. I guess she didn’t care for the crust.

The weather is below 40 at night and into the 70’s in the day time. Lovely fall weather with an evening chill brings us back into the house sooner than last month. Winter approaches slowly, but the change in temperature reminds us that it is approaching.

53 thoughts on ““A Is For Apple””

  4. It’s only right that everyone should share your poetry choice Elizabeth. I didn’t know this one, it’s great!

    One Old Oxford Ox
    Author Unknown

    ONE old Oxford ox opening oysters;
    Two tee-totums totally tired of trying to trot to Tedsbury;
    Three thick thumping tigers tickling trout;
    Four fat friars fanning fainting flies;
    Five frippy Frenchmen foolishly fishing for flies;
    Six sportsmen shooting snipes;
    Seven Severn salmons swallowing shrimps;
    Eight Englishmen eagerly examining Europe;
    Nine nimble noblemen nibbling nonpareils;
    Ten tinkers tinkling upon ten tin tinder-boxes with ten tenpenny tacks;
    Eleven elephants elegantly equipt;
    Twelve typographical topographers typically translating types.

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  5. Pies are so much work I’m lucky to make one a year. I was actually thinking of making an apple pie tonight from all the little apples I picked from my tree. But I think I’ll make apple crisp instead which is much easier and more likely to actually get done – and save the annual pie for next month! 🙂

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  7. It is still summer weather here. I can’t bake anything yet or I will faint from the heat. Yesterday it surpassed the estimate of 89 and reached 93. I worry about next week. The estimate temps for Tuesday and Wednesday are 100.
    Fall means baking for sure.

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  8. I don’t have your pie rituals but I do have your weather right now. And it is glorious. Pleasant for walking mid-morning. Warm for sitting out in the evening. Cool for sleeping. Now if only our country were so calm and well-regulated. Even for a moment.

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  9. Sorry to say I don’t share your love of pies. I’m just not a pie person…….don’t like all that pastry and certainly don’t like cooking it.
    We do share one of your temperatures though……our lows at the moment are similar to yours….wish our highs were. Winter seems to have given Spring the push for the moment and it’s back to COLD 😢

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  11. The changing season is exciting and perfect for making pies. Your pie ritual is wonderful. But, I must say the most important thing you wrote was Edward Lear’s nonsense poetry. That is what draws in children. The rhyming words are perfect. Dr. Seuss understood this, and helped inspire readers.

    Did you know in the 50’s the two choices schools across America had for teaching reading were Dick and Jane, and Dr. Seuss? The vast majority of schools used Dick and Jane. Dr. Seuss was too weird for most schools. How sad. Of course we now know today his nonsense and rhyming was, and still is, the best early reader. I was a poor reader, and would have thrived under Dr. Seuss.

    Apologies for getting sidetracked on apple pie. 🙂

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    1. I would always ask my college students to recite any poem from their childhoods and they would always be able to chant Dr Seuss in unison. My school used Dick and Jane. I already knew how to read when I started school and was really disheartened by the books.

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      1. Your students were the generation of Dr. Seuss. We were not, except for the few far-thinking schools. It was bad enough that you had to tough out Dick and Jane, as you were an early reader. It was even worse to tough out Dick and Jane as a non-reader. Oh, how we we both needed Dr. Seuss, yet in very different ways.

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  13. I may revert back to my grandmother’s ‘fried pies’. With the quarantined lives we lead, it is hard to consume even one small pie. Fried apple pies were my favorite.

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      1. Any time of the year as our fruit orchids are in another state & go into cold storage once picked, so we have ‘fresh’ apples all year round. 😀
        They are ripe for picking from Jan to June depending on the variety & can be kept in cold storage for up to six months.

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