Low sugar dessert recipes

[Robson Valley]

Interesting. Modern varieties of sour pie cherries are all the darlings of the fruit business in western Canada, Saskatchewan in particular.
Seasonal temp swings from -30C to +35C. Annual precip maybe 40cm in many places but orchards would have irrigation.
Sweden cannot match that? Hard to believe. Hanging onto ancient varieties is a good idea for heritage seed BUT,
to make a go of it these days, pick the tool for the job.

 

[Janne]

Cherries did not grow in or above Stockholm, or in the area called Småland which is further south, but has bad soil and cold climate.
They crow well in Skåne ( Scania) except in the north close to Småland.

 

[Robson Valley]

Well, get some 21st century seed from western Canada.
The changes have been profound over that last 50-60 years.
Be grateful for the decades of cross polinations and plantings.

I live at 53N in the mountains. Grapes and cherries are lush, the pears are OK. Apples everywhere.
The kiwi fruit are a bust = must take a lot of heat to get them to size. BUT. They don't die.
Don't have peaches or apricots but I see some microclimate habitats that I hope to get permission to plant in
just for the experiment.

 

[Janne]

You can not use seed for trees, as you do not know exactly what the fruit will be. You need to graft.

I do not think it is easy to import stuff like that. Illegal without a ton of paperwork.
In Russia they have also developed some amazing, cold tolerant fruits, both trees, vines and budhes.

Well, get some 21st century seed from western Canada.
The changes have been profound over that last 50-60 years.
Be grateful for the decades of cross polinations and plantings.

I live at 53N in the mountains. Grapes and cherries are lush, the pears are OK. Apples everywhere.
The kiwi fruit are a bust = must take a lot of heat to get them to size. BUT. They don't die.
Don't have peaches or apricots but I see some microclimate habitats that I hope to get permission to plant in
just for the experiment.

 

[Robson Valley]

The cross-pollinations for superior hybridization are done here and have been done for decades (Forestry Farm, Saskatoon, SK., Canada.)
The key is to bag the flowers both before and after to be reasonably certain that no wind borne or insect-borne pollen is involved.

Of course, once the value of a hybrid is established, grafting for proliferation is the effective thing to do.

 

[Janne]

When I lived in Sweden, I had a neighbor that had the World Record in grafter apple sorts on one tree. When I left 20 years ago he had more than 120 apple sorts grafted.

It was a beautiful tree in spring time, when the blooms erupted. All branches had a different hue, ranging from pure white to blood red.

 

[Robson Valley]

Great story. Must be quite a sight in spring. Some nurseries here actually sell multigrafts of maybe 5 scion varieties on one stock.
Just one of those things I never got around to buying. Can't be any worse than the crappy varieties I did wind up with.

Very old immigrant Italian guy lives on the next street over. He and I talk grapes and apples.
Turns out that he has snuck into every yard and garden in the village to snitch a few apple twig cuttings
to graft into his wide assortment of trees.

I first met him when he came over to "visit my grapes." He said that my back fence was too big for him to climb over
so I gave him a pot with some cuttings from each of my 2 apples.

When I was a little kid, my Mom made baked apple desserts.
She cored the apple then stuffed it with oatmeal, raisins, butter amd molasses.
Maybe was some cinnamon & nutmeg as well. I can still taste them.

 

[Janne]

Too high to climb..... what a cool guy!

Sounds like your mom's heritage was central European? Or she learned that from somebody originating there?

My mom used to do the same, but she did not use molasses but honey. Yep, very tasty!
She used a lot of apples as we always had apple trees, or access to free apples.

Between age 10 and 15 we lived in a house that came with my dads job ( MD for a rural district) and we had an orchard of about 100 trees around the house. We used to pick them, collect the fallen ones and take them to be made into Apple Juice, they gave back to us bottled. Did not cost much. We had daily apple juice for over 6 months.

In England I discovered an ancient apple tree hidden amongst an overgrown corner of our property. The apples were like a Bramley (cooking apple) when semi ripe, but then ripened to an eating apple. I called a place in Kent that develop new apple sorts, they came, took samples from the trunk. It was over 300 years old. They then took grafts.

 

[Robson Valley]

My family appears to be at least 6-7 generations Canadian. Interior plains/agricultural people. Probably England and Scotland origins.

I've lived in British Columbia for ?50 years or so. Lots of fishing and hunting.
What I have found, all over the place and hidden in derelict forest clearings are apple trees.
Usually one, no more than three. Must have been homestead plantings, life styles that just didn't work out.
Remember, this place is very young, maybe 2 centuries of caucasian habitation.

I started to crap on about making dolmades with the younger, tender grape leaves.
Quinto looked up at me and said: "You Greek?"

 

[Janne]

Those apple trees in the old clearing are quite interesting. You should visit some and try the apples.
One very old Russian sort is called Astrakan. Used to be, together with White Transparent, hugely popular in Sweden. Delicious, but today both are almost extinct in Sweden.

The Swedish immigrants in mid 1800' brought them over to your shores as they seem to be quite common there.

 

[Robson Valley]

My grandmother had a Transparent in the back yard in Vancouver, BC when I was a kid.
Was fun to torment the drunken wasps that soaked in the rotten, fermenting fruit on the ground.
Very good apples when just a little under ripe. She had a 5 scion apple tree, too.

There is a Heritage Orchard on the west coast, on Vancouver Island. Supposed to sustain 200+ varieties.
I read quite some time ago that there are several Heritage Orchards, scattered across England.
One comment was they grew apples that were on Henry VIII plate.

There are a few really old and scrubby -looking apple trees around in my village when you know where to look.
Story goes that some guy came through town 50-75 yrs ago and stuck a few in the ground.
One of them got totally whacked by building rennovators. Apples like golf balls and spur branches every inch.
That's old.

 

[MegaWoodsWalker]

Dumped my A1C from 12 to 5.6

Bottom line. Don't eat dessert if you have diabetes. Honestly it's not so bad.

 

[santaman2000]

Dumped my A1C from 12 to 5.6

Bottom line. Don't eat dessert if you have diabetes. Honestly it's not so bad.

Well done!

 

[MegaWoodsWalker]

Well done!

Thanks brother!!!!

 

[Robson Valley]

HOLY TOOT, MWW! Took me a few years to do the same thing!
Congratulations from me and my innards.

 

[Tengu]

Thats cheating.