Rustic Apple Crumble Recipe
This rustic apple crumble recipe combines fresh apples with the warm flavours of cinnamon and cloves, topped with a crisp oatmeal crumble. Simple to prepare, this dish makes a stunning Thanksgiving dessert, Christmas dessert or served up pretty much any day of the week in the fall and winter months!
***
Like most basic white chicks, fall is my favourite time of year. I love the crisp fall air and crunchy leaves underfoot. I love the earthy reds, oranges and browns that mix with the evergreens here in the Pacific Northwest. I love the cozy glow of candles as the nights get darker, and the warm scent of pumpkin spice that seems to infiltrate life at this time of year. And I love apples.
Ever since we moved to our old place with the big ol’ apple tree where we first started homesteading, apples have become a fall treat that we eagerly await each year. I hardly ever buy apples from the store anymore, and would rather wait until the abundance of the fall harvest to enjoy them fresh, preserve them and bake them into all sorts of goodies.
Applesauce was the very first thing I ever canned, and it’s a standby every year!
The Gravenstein apple tree at our old place has been on the property for roughly 100 years or more. A couple winters ago, the snow pack was so heavy that the largest two branches broke off the tree. The owners had the tree filled with concrete in hopes of preserving what remained. This year it rebounded and gave us lots of apples. Although not nearly as many as we got a couple years ago when the tree was three times its current size!
But I also love to enjoy apples while they’re in season, because there’s really no better time than fall to combine flavours like apple, cinnamon and cloves into all sorts of tasty treats.
By far my favourite apple recipe of all time is this humble but impressive rustic apple crumble. Aside from the time it takes to peel and slice the apples, the rest takes just minutes to prepare and less than an hour to bake to perfection.
It’s always a crowd pleaser and goes well with dinner any night of the week, or for any special occasion. It’s my go-to recipe for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner (in addition to this divine no-bake whipped pumpkin pie), and Ryan and I even shared some on our anniversary this year after doing dinner at home for the first time. (We had steak and mushrooms with beet greens and garlic out of our garden, by the way, and it was absolutely delish).
I love to bake my apple crumble in my cast iron pan, but you can also make it in a regular baking dish or pie pan. Cast iron adds a rustic feel (and adds iron!) to the dish, so if you have it, cook with it!
But the coup de grâce was definitely the rustic apple crumble skillet that we baked up with our first batch of apples from our tree this year. And it was extra special, not just because it was our 4-year anniversary (woot woot!) but also because this is our last year enjoying the fruits of that tree.
While we’re still transitioning to our new house, we’re saying goodbye to that old apple tree this year and inheriting a hazelnut tree instead! I’m absolutely LOVING our new place, but I will definitely miss the apple tree:(
Hazelnuts are getting ready to fall off the tree at our new house!
Whether you have an apple tree on your property or you buy them from the farmers market, now is the time to gather them and turn them into all sorts of yummy foods that will sustain you and your family now and in the months to come.
Whatever you do with your apples this season, be sure to put this apple crumble recipe on your fall menu. Then put on your sweater, sip a chai latte and enjoy all the comforts of the best season of the year:)
Happy fall y’all!
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 2 pounds of apples, peeled and sliced
- 1 tbsp. all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
- 2 tbsp. lemon juice
For the Crumble Topping
- 1 cup quick oats
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 cup butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Combine all ingredients for filling in a large mixing bowl. Stir until well-combined. Spoon filling into a baking dish, pie plate or cast iron pan.
- Combine dry ingredients for crumble topping in a mixing bowl. Stir in melted butter and mix well to combine. Crumble topping should be a little bit clumpy from the addition of the butter and just slightly moist throughout.
- Spread topping evenly over apple filling. Bake for 45-50 minutes and enjoy warm with a spoonful of vanilla ice cream:)
CATEGORIES
ABOUT ANNA
You Might Also Like
4 Ways to Preserve Herbs At Home
Every year without fail, I wait until the last possible moment to harvest and preserve everything out of our garden, including my herbs. Sure, I harvest things throughout the season to eat or enjoy fresh, but when it comes to preserving (as with many other things),...
Roasted Radishes With Honey Butter & Thyme
* This article contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my Affiliate Disclosure. I’ve never been a fan of radishes. As a kid, the only time I ever remember eating radishes was in salad. Always that flavourless garden salad made with...
A lot of people preach living a slow, simple life, but in reality they’re going a million miles an hour trying to keep up with their “slow simple lifestyle,” which often includes farming, gardening, cooking, preserving, educating and caring for children and even some degree of sharing it all with the world, either on social media, through a blog, vlog, podcast, etc. Not to mention all of the other demands of modern day life, including work outside the home, errands, emergencies and extracurricular activities. It can all get more than a bit overwhelming at times, and before you know it the “simple life” can feel like anything but.
I’m definitely guilty of not always practicing what I preach in this regard, and lately I’ve felt it all catching up to me.
I’ve been letting stress get the best of me these past few weeks and I’ve been feeling the physical toll it’s been taking on me. And I know I’m not the only one! Trying to keep up with the demands of daily life can keep us all in a constant state of chronic stress that’s not healthy.
Too often I find I’m so busy working that I don’t take time to slow down and just enjoy the bees on the flowers in the garden, or to have a picnic with my daughter or colour mandalas or make a Mason jar snail terrarium with her.
But at the end of the day, these are the things that fill me up and make me feel whole; These are the things that make a “slow, simple life” worth living.
So I’ve been taking time out to do more of this lately, and have been doing my best to organize and prioritize what’s truly important.
If you’re struggling with feeling stressed or overwhelmed with everything on your to-do list too, and you need some help managing the must-dos so you can free up time to actually slow down and enjoy life, I’ve got a few tips that may help.
Click the link in my bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://thehouseandhomestead.com/10-tips-for-managing-stress-and-overwhelm/ to read my 10 tips for managing stress and overwhelm on the homestead.
I’d love to know your tips too! How do you manage stress? Let me know down below👇
We’ve been saving up cardboard for months now. We’ve had 6 yards of mulch sitting in our driveway for weeks, and we’ve weeded the same areas of our garden more times than I can count. Not to mention, mulching our garden paths has been on our to-do list ever since we put in our main garden 3 years ago.
It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally getting around to tackling this task and it’s about to make our work (and our lives) A LOT easier.
While I’m a huge proponent of investing time and money up front to do things the right way and make life easier right off the bat, the reality is that it’s not always feasible or affordable to do all of the things you want to do right away. This is true for homesteading and for life in general; You just have to do what you can with what you’ve got and chip away at your goals little by little.
We’re still a long ways off from where we want to be and from what we envision for this property when we’re through with it. And we still have a dream someday move to a larger property where we’ll add all sorts of new projects to our to-do list! But although some days it seems as if we’ll never be done (and truthfully, we probably won’t), it’s days like this that make me stand back and say “holy crap, look how far we’ve come!”
This is so important to remember, no matter where you are on your journey. Always take time to celebrate your accomplishments and don’t dwell on all of the things you still need to do. Just focus on the next thing and little by little it will start to come together. Take things one step, one day and one cardboard box at a time, and eventually you too will look back and say “holy crap, look how far I’ve come.”
.
.
.
#humanswhogrowfood #gardenersofinstagram #gardenersworld #growfoodnotlawns #growyourownfood #homesteading #homesteadersofinstagram
(1/5) The past few weeks have been some of the most difficult to date in my occupation as a homesteader and a blogger.
I've had to do a lot of soul-searching to really, truly, deeply ask myself why?
Why have I chosen this path, and why is it important to me to share it with the world??
The truth is, I've talked about my "why" before. I don't homestead and grow food and cook and preserve and preach about sustainability and self-reliance and self-determination simply because I think homegrown tomatoes are healthier and taste better than store-bought tomatoes. Sure, this is part of it, but it's not the part that drives me to put in the long hours and hard work that goes into the line of work I've chosen.
What drives me to do what I do and to share my passion for homesteading and self-sufficiency with the world comes from a place deep inside me that sees the wrongs in our system, and wants to do whatever I can to challenge them and make them right.
I've talked many, many times about the flaws with our modern, industrialized food system, and about how homesteading is a way to take back some control over our food supply and buck this system. (Yes, that's buck, with a "b" ;)
I talk all the time about the importance of supporting small farmers and local businesses instead of big corporations, and about the importance of voting with your dollars.
And I preach the importance of community, and why it's so important to support each other and find support in your community, whether in your local community or online. Because self-sufficiency is about more than each individual person or family; It's about empowering entire communities of people to rise up and take control of their own food supply and basic needs, and break free from the cycle of dependency on the system that most of us are born into.
To me, homesteading is about so much more than the act of growing and preparing food, or DIY-ing your own soap or candles or toothpaste. Quite honestly, it's a way for everyday people to take back control over their own lives and throw a proverbial middle finger to "the system" and the status quo.
(Continued in comments...)
Roughly one year ago, the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer brought the issue of systemic racism to the forefront of so many conversations. I, like many others, released a statement that I wanted to do more to combat racism, and to showcase more diversity in the world of modern homesteading, and you, my dear readers, stepped up with some excellent resources to get me started.
I began diving into these resources and kept coming across a term that, until then, I had never heard before. While the terms "food security," "self-sufficiency," "sustainability" and "food independence" tend to make it into many conversations related to modern homesteading, it was only when I began researching Black people in the modern homesteading movement that I heard the term "food justice," and I immediately knew this was something I wanted to learn more about and share with you here. Which is why...
This month's issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine is all about Food Justice.
The Food Justice Movement is a response to racial injustice in our current food system, and aims to help ensure equal and equitable access to fresh, healthy, organic food for people in low-income communities of colour, often dubbed “food deserts” where such food is scarce.
I’ve been so nervous to hit publish on this issue due to the sensitive nature of the topic, but it’s an issue that not nearly enough people in the Modern Homesteading community are talking about, and it absolutely deserves some of our attention.
I invite you to enjoy this issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine, and to join me in the fight for people of all races, classes and ethnicities to have equal and equitable access to fresh, healthy food.
Check your inbox for the latest issue if you’re already subscribed, or click the link in my bio @thehouseandhomestead to subscribe for free or become a member and get unlimited access to our entire library of issues. I’ll be matching and donating 100% of all proceeds from membership sales during the month of June to help advance Food Justice initiatives. You can find more info about this in the delivery email for this issue.
One of my favourite ways to use rhubarb in the spring is to turn it into a delicious rhubarb juice concentrate to mix with soda water, juice or cocktails for a refreshing bevvies all summer long.
This is one of the most popular recipes on my site, and even includes canning instructions so you can put some up to enjoy all year long! I’ve been sharing it on social media every spring for years now, but all of a sudden Facebook won’t let me post it because apparently it “goes against their community standards,” and Instagram let me post the photo, but when I added the link to the caption they just deleted the entire caption without warning.
A reader of mine who tried to share this recipe a couple weeks ago suspects that it’s because the word “shooting” appeared in the post, when I talked about our rhubarb stalks “shooting” out of the ground. I’ve since changed that sentence and appealed to the FB gods, but so far to no avail.
Luckily, however, I was able to share the recipe in my IG link, so make sure to head over there now to get the recipe before it’s too late! Maybe even print it for future reference. After all, you just never know when the Internet is gonna “disappear” your favourite recipes forever 😜
Link in bio (for now anyway) @thehouseandhomestead
Every year without fail, I wait until the last possible moment to harvest and preserve everything out of our garden, including our herbs.
Not only does this leave me stressed and overwhelmed and wanting to pull my hair out come summer and fall, but herbs are actually best when harvested in the springtime anyway, when they're still young and tender. So this year I'm getting a head start on preserving season by preserving our first batch of herbs in the spring, well before any of the summer fruits and vegetables are ripe for the picking.
Join me in the herb garden and then follow me into the kitchen where I'll show you a few of my favourite ways to preserve fresh herbs at home to enjoy all year round. Be sure to stick along til the end and enjoy a garden fresh mojito with me (wherever you are, it’s 5:00 somewhere, right ;)
Link in bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://youtu.be/Qr11BK5J5aU to watch the full video and get all my favourite herb preserving recipes!
So this is 34...
(1/3) When I look back on my 34 tours around the sun, all I can say is WOW! How incredibly blessed I’ve been.
In my younger years, I had the privilege of travelling around the world and living abroad 3 times, long before borders closed and travelling became more of a nightmare than a dream.
When I returned home to my roots, I completed my second degree in education (my first degree is in journalism) and I married the love of my life. During these years of schooling and settling into domestic life in Vancouver, we started learning more about where our food comes from and how reconnecting with nature could help relieve much of the crippling anxiety that I felt living in the city, so we set a goal to move to Vancouver Island where we could afford more land and start farming and gardening once we were married and I was done school. With laser focus and intention placed on this goal, the stars aligned and we made our move 6 years ago now. We’ve never looked back.
While our initial move brought heartache when we had a major accident on the way to our new home and lost a beloved family pet, I was soon comforted when I learned I was pregnant with our first child.
I also stumbled into the perfect teaching job at a beautiful little school with an ocean view, where I worked until I gave birth. But I didn’t feel truly fulfilled as a teacher. I’ve always wanted to write and create content to share with the world, but I didn’t know exactly how I would do this or what form it would take.
Then, while on maternity leave, I learned about the world of blogging, and that there were many people who have made a very lucrative career out of creating and sharing online content with the world. The lightbulb went off and I knew immediately that this was my calling. I also knew exactly what I wanted to write about and share: I wanted to share my passion for growing, cooking and preserving real food, and living a more sustainable life. I wanted to teach and inspire others to pursue their own homesteading dreams like we had, and show them that if we could do it, so could they.
Continued in comments...
I have a confession to make...
I don’t like radishes. But I love to grow them, which has created quite a dilemma in the past. That is, until I discovered ROASTED RADISHES!
Talk about a game changer! Roasting radishes completely takes the bite out of radishes (ya know, that spiciness that fresh radishes are known for). Plus, the addition of honey butter elevates even the most boring side dish of radishes to a dish you’re gonna wanna lick clean! Not that I’ve done that or anything 😳
My favourite radishes to grow are an heirloom variety called French Breakfast radishes (pictured here). They’re long and cylindrical rather than round and they’re an absolute beauty in the garden and on a plate!
But any radishes will work for this recipe. And if you’ve got some fresh thyme growing in your herb garden, toss in a few sprigs to compliment the flavours in this dish.
I’ve gone from disliking radishes to literally salivating over this dish, so much so that I had to share the recipe!
Whether or not you love radishes fresh, these roasted radishes are a total game changer and a sure crowd pleaser. But don’t take my word for it. Do yourself a favour and try ‘em for yourself:)
Recipe link in bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://thehouseandhomestead.com/roasted-radishes-with-honey-butter/
.
.
.
#radishes #roastedradishes #radishrecipes #farmtotable #gardentotable #humanswhogrowfood #growfoodnotlawns #homesteadkitchen #nomnom #droolclub
🕷 There was a time in my life when finding a nest of spiders on my garden gate, VERY close to the handle, would have easily been considered one of my worst nightmares.
Seriously... Growing up I HATED spiders and was so terrified of them. One time there was a single spider on my grandma’s car window and I said “look Nanny, it’s Arachnophobia!” Anybody remember that movie? Let’s just say that it haunted me for many years of my life!
But when I started gardening and reconnecting with nature, suddenly spiders went from being something I was afraid of to something I welcomed on our property.
In the spring, I love seeing the garden spiders (I have no clue what they’re actually called) running around close to my fingers as I plant out seeds, many of them carrying large egg sacs on their back.
In the fall I love watching orb spiders spin their webs that capture the last of the summer rays and the first of the fall raindrops on their silky threads.
Even in the bathroom (why do spiders gravitate to the bathroom??) I always try not to kill the spiders that I find, but relocate them to the garden instead. A healthy garden is teeming with spiders and worms and butterflies and bees. A healthy garden is full of healthy life, and just like good bacteria helps ward off bad bacteria in our bodies, so too do the “good bugs” help to control the bad bugs in the garden, and spiders are one of the most beneficial bugs when it comes to that!
It’s amazing how much living close to the land changes you and gives you a greater respect for all life. As much as I’m still not ready to put my hands out and hold a spider (I literally passed out when I was a kid and tried to hold someone’s pet tarantula), I am learning to coexist with all things, and appreciate the unique purpose that every living thing serves here on Earth.
As much as it may seem like we have nothing in common, if you take a moment to just observe nature or sit in stillness by your garden gate, you’re sure to realize we all have more in common than most people might think.
Some people want an ocean view or a high-rise apartment with a bird’s eye view of the city. Me? I’ll never get tired of waking up to this (weeds and all!) 😍
.
.
.
#gardenersofinstagram #gardenersofig #homesteadersofinstagram #homesteading #simpleliving #springgarden #growfoodnotlawns
My mom and dad divorced when I was just 9 months old. I have no memory of them ever being together, and remain my mother’s only child.
It was definitely a struggle at times. When I was a kid I was constantly reminded that money didn’t grow on trees and that, while we lived comfortably, there was never any extra for the “fun stuff.”
I watched my mom cry many times because of how hard it was to be a single mother on a tight income. Sometimes I would pull whatever money I had in my piggy bank and offer it to her to help pay for groceries. She always refused, but I know it was hard on her to want to give me the world while simultaneously having to use coupons just to get by, and it was hard on me watching how hard it was on her.
But while I didn’t grow up wearing name-brand clothes or getting whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it, my mom was determined to put whatever extra money she could save toward giving me some of the best experiences life had to offer and making memories together that will last our lifetimes.
When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to go on a discounted school trip to Europe. My mom encouraged me to go and told me she would help pay for it. So I signed myself up and when I found out they were looking for parents to help chaperone the trip, I immediately asked my mom to come along. I promised her that I would work hard and save up enough money to pay for my own trip so she could afford to come too.
We made it happen, and it marked the beginning of roughly a decade of adventures together travelling all over the world.
In the end, the experiences we had have helped shape me and my appreciation for all that this beautiful world has to offer, and the memories we made together will forever remain some of my most cherished.
Yes, there were times we struggled, but thanks to my mom, I can truly say that I’ve had a blessed life, and am grateful every day for all of the sacrifices she made in order to literally give me the world. She didn’t just teach me the value of a dollar, she taught me that time spent together is worth more than anything else we could possibly spend our money on.
Thanks mom. I love you as big as the world 🗺 ❤️
🪴The May issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine just dropped! This month’s issue is all about the wonderful world of herbs and herb gardening!!!
Herbs have always been an integral part of both good food and good health, often at the same time!
The great emperor Charlemagne famously said that "Herbs are the friend of the physician and the pride of cooks."
Indeed, both physicians and cooks would be nothing without herbs, and so you can see how useful having an herb garden can be for us modern homesteaders who often aim to cook most of our meals from scratch with ingredients grown on our own property AND be our family's own primary health care provider.
First up we're showcasing 10 less common herbs that are totally worthy of a place in your garden. From culinary herbs like lovage and chervil to medicinal herbs like comfrey and marshmallow and dual purpose herbs in between, if you're looking to expand your herb garden beyond the standard culinary herbs you're familiar with, this guide breaks down everything you need to know about growing and using these lesser known herbs at home.
Our guest interview this month is with CeAnne Kosel, founder of @farmhouseteas. CeAnne's journey into herbalism began with a discounted pack of calendula seeds and led her to starting what has become a successful business mixing and selling herbal teas and other all-natural herbal products. She's here sharing her story, her advice for anyone wanting to break into the business side of selling herbal products and her formula for crafting herbal teas that are as healing as they are delicious!
And of course, no issue would be complete without a few good recipes to keep in your back pocket (or herb cabinet). This month we're tipping our hats to the art, flavour and finesse of French cooking with three distinctly French herb blends that will help take your home cooking to a whole new level. Plus, don't miss CeAnne's bonus recipe for homemade Allergy Tea, perfect for spring! (Aka. allergy season).
To read the May issue, subscribe for FREE via the link in my bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to thehouseandhomestead.com/magazine.
Happy herb gardening!
0 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks