Apple Season!
AT THYME
Sweet, crunchy, and deliciously refreshing, apples are a firm favourite for a mid-morning snack and a flavourful ingredient for indulgent puddings like crumbles and tarts. We press, slice, squeeze and peel in the Ox Barn kitchen, while in the house they dangle buoyantly from the dining table centrepiece.
On an amble through the orchards on a crisp autumnal morning the apples bob red and green through the branches, offering a joyful first glimpse of the festive season. This caused us to ponder the history of these fruits, and what role they played in Christmas traditions.
In the late 1840s, families in Germany began using evergreen trees as decorative symbols to celebrate the religious feast day. The ‘paradise tree’ was set up in their homes on 24th December and was decorated with various fruit and nuts. During the festive season in 1848 a photograph captured Queen Victoria celebrating Christmas with her German-born husband, Prince Albert, and their family around a decorated evergreen tree, adorned with ruby red apples. Thereafter, this decoration spread like wildfire across England.
The Christbaum or Christ Tree in Germany, which we now call a Christmas tree, was typically fashionable in the English upper-class circles where they formed the focal point of social gatherings. It is thought the religious connotations of an apple at Christmas derives from Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, placed on the tree as the defining symbol of good and evil.
Nowadays the UK is the only country that grows apples especially for cooking. This season we will be serving our homegrown, fresh apple juice in the Ox Barn for breakfast and we will be sharing plenty of apple recipes for culinary creations. And as we bundle the apples into our trug and carry them into the warmth of the kitchen for cooking and decorating, we do so gleeful anticipation for the festive season to come!
