Chapter XXVII Apples and Apple Fun
When the apple-trees are in bloom, stand under one and look up through the wonderful tent of flowers at the little bits of blue sky peeping down at you between the blossoms. Isn’t it delightful to see so many, many apple-blossoms all at once? How beautiful they are and how sweet they smell!
Now, pick one little blossom and examine it carefully. Count the pretty pink-and-white petals. Five petals? Yes. Look again, see how they grow from the centre and notice their shape. Be very particular, so that you will remember exactly how the blossom looks; make sure you know, for I am going to tell you about the flower you can find inside the big, ripe apple after all the other apple-blossoms are gone.
Apple-Blossom in Apple
Cut the apple into thin slices from side to side through the core. Take one of the slices from near the middle of the apple and hold it up to the light, so that the light will shine through it, then look carefully and you will see in the centre a perfect pattern of the apple-blossom you gathered from the tree (Fig. 212). Apple-seeds form the centre of the flower. The petals, five in number, are of the flesh of the fruit. They are of the same shape and size as the real blossom. Isn’t it wonderful?
Now, take the seeds from their hard, glossy cases, again hold the slice up to the light and lo, in the centre of the slice, you will find a five-pointed star which twinkles as the light shines through.
You can add to this and make a pretty, shining pattern in this way: Take a wooden toothpick, and with its pointed end pierce little holes all along the edge of the flower pattern; then make a loop of little holes above one of the petals (Q, Fig. 213), and still another above that one (R, Fig. 213). Pierce the edges of all the petals and make the same kind of double loops above them also, then the design will be like Fig. 214. Hold it up to the light, turn it this way and that and your slice of apple will look as if spangled with glittering diamonds. Fig. 215 shows a wheel design which you can make of another slice.
Apple Candle in Its Candlestick
When I was a little girl I used to make apple candles that stood up in their own candlesticks. I always ate the fresh, juicy slices as I cut them off. Fig. 216 shows how the candles look when finished. The stem is the wick, and as it is usually dark at the end, it is a very good imitation of a candlewick that is partially burnt. The dotted lines on Fig. 217 show how to cut away the apple to leave the candle and its holder.
First cut off a slice at the blossom end, so that the candle-stick will stand without tipping. The dotted line at the bottom of Fig. 217 indicates where this cut is to be made. Then run your knife around the apple without cutting all the way through to the core, where you see the middle dotted line on Fig. 217. After that, begin at the sides and gradually shave down the upper part little by little, being careful not to cut below the slit you have made around the apple. When the middle part standing up around the core is the size of a real candle it is time to stop cutting. Because of the core inside you cannot make your candle very slender, but you can cut off the sharp edges and make it round.
A Roasted Apple
Another thing I used to love to do with my apple when I was a little girl was to tie a long string to the stem and hang it before an open fire to roast. I think you will enjoy it too.
Tie one end of the string securely to the stem of your apple, and don’t break the stem off in doing it (Fig. 218); then tie the other end to something heavy on the mantel-shelf that will hold it securely. The apple should hang in front of a grate of glowing coals, or near the red-hot coals of a wood-fire.
As soon as cooking begins, twist the string and make the apple spin round and round so that it may be roasted evenly on all sides; it is fun to do that. When the juice begins to run and drop from the apple, set a saucer under to catch the hot, sweet syrup. It is good poured over the apple when that is thoroughly cooked. Add sugar to the juice while it is hot if it is not sweet enough.
The Spice Apple
In New England, many years ago, there was always to be found in every household at least one spice apple. It sounds good to eat, doesn’t it? But they were not made for eating, they were used for sweet-smelling ornaments, and for keeping away moths and other troublesome insects. Perhaps you will like to make a spice apple to give away; it will be a pretty and very sweet gift and will last for years.
Choose a small, perfectly sound apple and have ready a lot of cloves. Stick the cloves into the apple as you would stick pins into a cushion, only the cloves must be put in very close together, touching each other and making the apple look like a large, prickly, brown nut. That is all, unless you want to hang the apple up. In that case run a wooden toothpick through one raised side at the top, across the little hollow where the stem grows, and out through the raised side opposite, after first breaking off the stem. Cross this toothpick with another pushed through the apple and also bridging the hollow. This will make a low handle in the form of a cross. At the middle, where the toothpicks touch, tie a bright ribbon, leaving a loop by which to hang it.