Apple and Cinnamon Muffins
With some Bramley apples needing to be cooked I made apple and cinnamon muffins. These were prompted by Sophie’s recipe and were a delicious treat.
There’s very little to pick in the garden for the first time in months but the Kaffir lily, one of three planted only four weeks ago, has saved the day.
Another plant in flower is a pineapple sage. This herb I grow mainly for its fresh green-scented leaves and compact form.
Its pot was needed to take the Osmanthus fragrans but it was carefully re-planted at the base of the shrub and within days it looked as if it had been there forever. It’s very long-suffering and even put forth these pretty red flowers. It’s next to the house wall outside the kitchen so hopefully will survive winter.
My experiment spraying cut fatsia flowers with silver paint worked but only for four days. Since then the flowers and stems have collapsed and are looking very un-festive. If the flowers remain healthy on the plant then I shall try again and I’ll pick them a day or two before Christmas to spray back and front with silver or gold.
On the allotment the garlic and onions are through the soil with their green shoots making a welcome sign of life. We’ve had really heavy rain for the last three weeks and the ground is sodden so I worry that the weather may be against them.
And I picked the last of the cosmos before the temperature drops this weekend …
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Yum, I love fruit muffins! I’ve been making apple and blackberry muffins in the past couple of weeks, very easy to put together and totally yummy. Isn’t pineapple sage amazing? I had one in the wrong place last year and thought I’d killed it off when digging it up but, no, it’s suddenly reappeared in the last couple of months so now I have two! (I bought another to plant in a better spot.) The replacement has just started to flower which I’m thrilled about. It will be interesting to see what survives the forecast arctic winds this weekend; I’m not hopeful there will be many flowers standing afterwards! Have a good weekend, Sue. Cx
Yes muffins are so easy to make and you’ve reminded me I have quantities of blackberries in the freezer so they’ll be next.I hope the pineapple sage survives winter. Cuttings have been taken and are in the pop up greenhouse. Have a great weekend Caro,
Oh dear, sorry to hear about the limp fatsia flowers. I’ve just picked some from my plant which was originally a house warming pot plant when we moved here 25 years ago. As children took over the house the pot plants, some huge, had to go but I took a chance with the fatsia and planted it outside next to a sheltered north-west facing wall where it has thrived for the last 15 years. I’ve put my flowers in water and will report on their performance. I’ve been making an apple cake a week this autumn and my favourite is Monty Don’s (!) windfall apple cake which Sarah Raven includes in her Garden Cook Book. It combines apples with a quince or two and is truly the best apple cake I’ve ever made. Lovely cosmos, another amazing success story in this so mild Autumn – by the pond I’ve even got new flowering shoots of kaffir lily/Hesperantha coming through.
Gosh I like the sound of that apple cake and will google immediately. Yes it’s a shame about the fatsia flower project but I am about to try again with Agapanthus heads which are still on the plant so watch this space !!
Those muffins look delicious. I love pineapple sage, although it is slightly frustrating it flowers just as the frosts start every year. Hope it gets through the winter (mine lasted about 5 years until I cut it back too hard because it got woody). Good luck with the agapanthus experiment.
I hope it survives the forecast of a very cold winter. Yesterday I decided to put the fleece cover over the pop-up greenhouse in anticipation of frost.
Have you thought of picking the Fatsia flowers ans allowing them to dry before spraying, it might work.
Yes that’s a good idea and I’ll do the same for the agapanthus and leave them in the warm kitchen to dry out.
That’s what I do with Alliums and it works really well.
Those muffins look delicious. Have you got an airing cupboard? That’s where I dry most of my plant material. It’s only a tiny space where we have our boiler but there’s a shelf where I can hang bunches of stems and seedheads. Sometimes some material is just too soft and sappy to dry but it would certainly be interesting to see if they work. I might try it with some of mine. Aren’t kaffir lilies fab? I’ve just planted some in the garden and I love them.
I will have another go in the airing cupboard. Yes the colour of kaffir lilies is like no other pink that I can think of.