A few suggestions:

1. Buy organic.  Support producers who take care of the environment by not using synthetic (manmade) chemicals, fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.

2. Use less water. This one can also help save you money on your utility bill and (if applicable) add years to your septic system.  Run the dishwasher and clothes washer only when full. Shorten your shower by a minute or two, this can save over 100 gallons of water a month. Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth. Use a broom instead of a hose to clean your driveway.

3. Turn the lights off in a room when you are not in it. Better yet, use daylight and keep the lights off when you don’t need them.

4. Once your computer, phone, etc. is charged unplug it and turn the charger off.

5. Leave the car parked and walk or bike to the supermarket. Don’t forget your reusable bag so you can forego the plastic ones.

6. Drink tap water instead of bottled water.

For more great ideas visit this site.

Image Google.

Photos by Wendy Gallagher.

Made these last weekend with some apples I had on hand, and the results were so popular am making again for a dinner party this Friday night.  Apple picking, baking, and eating = a perfect weekend to ring in fall!

Maple Sugar Baked Apples

Ingredients:

• 8 large baking Apples  (such as Cortland or Golden Delicious)
• ½ cup Maple Sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground nutmeg
• 6 Tbsp. Coombs Family Farms 100% pure organic maple syrup
• 4 Tbsp  unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• ¼ – ½  cup raisins (optional)
• 1 cup water

Directions:

Peel skin off top quarter of each apple.  Core apple, leaving bottom intact.  Stand apples in 13x9x2-inch baking pan.  Mix sugar and spice in bowl.  Reserve 2 Tbsp mixture.  Fill apple cavities with remaining sugar mixture and raisins if desired.  Spoon ½ Tbsp maple syrup into each cavity.  Scatter 3 Tbsp butter piece over apple.  (can be made up to 4 hours ahead. Cover & chill)

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Pour ½ water into pan with apples.  Bake apples 35 minutes.  Add reserve 2 Tbsp sugar mixture, 2  Tbsp maple syrup, 1 Tbsp butter, and ½ cup water to pan.  Bake until apples are tender when pierced with skewer, about 25 minutes longer.  Transfer apples to 8 bowls.  Place baking pan atop 2 burners: boil over medium-high heat until syrupy, about 2 minutes.  Drizzle sauce over apples.  Serve with maple whip cream, if desired.

Yield: 8 servings

Maple Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (16 fl. Oz.) Heavy Cream
• ¼ to ½ cup Coombs Family Farms 100% pure organic maple syrup*

Directions:

Whip cream, fold in Maple

*Substitute Maple Syrup for 1 ½ cups of Coombs Family Farms 100% pure organic maple sugar

Coombs Family Farms is committed not just to the future of small family farms, but also to the future and health of our forests and environment.  We tap conservatively, and do not use pesticides. My grandfather, Robert Sr., always said, “There are no shortcuts to creating pure maple syrup – we do right by the forest and it’ll do right by you.”

To this day, Coombs Family Farms still works with many of the same maple trees my great, great-grandparents once tapped. Some of the trees are now more than 300 years old, one nearly 20 feet  in circumference.

Photo Bascom Family Archives.