An apple a day….

Last weekend my husband’s family met up for a BBQ at his brother’s house.  An uncle who emmigrated to Canada over 50 years ago was home, and it was a chance to meet up and catch up.

The kids love visiting their uncle’s home in Co Armagh as he has a small field where he grows many fruit and veg, and they love to pick and eat the produce.  This time we were offered lots of bramley cooking apples – Armagh is known as The Orchard county. You can find out more (and listen too!) about Armagh apples HERE.

On to the BBQ – my brother-in-law has built an open-sided barn which has a gas heater, a BBQ and lots of wonderful old farm equipment.  There are also some long tables and even an old church pew. He has been know to have BBQs there in winter too. You are always dry no matter what unpredictable weather is thrown at you.

There was lamb, steaks, chicken, prawns, home-grown King Edward potatoes, a heap of roasted vegetables and lots of salads.

Later there was warm apple tart,  and gooey chocolate cake.

The chat turned to family history, as the canadian uncle, and another cousin from that generation was able to fill in lots of gaps in the family knowledge.  The mother of the family died in childbirth 1944 leaving 5 kids, the youngest being 4, and their father was away fighting in France in World War 2. As often happened the children were sent to various family members, my husband’s mother being raised by a spinster aunt in Co Armagh. It was emotional imagining what the family went through as much of what happened had not really been discussed for many years.

The cousins always enjoy meeting up – here are some pics of the girls.

Finally one more of those delicious apples – I love how they have all their imperfections, a bit ugly really, unlike the uniform identically sized ones in the supermarket. We don’t usually have pudding during the week (just yoghurt, fruit and maybe a biscuit) but planning to put apple crumble on the menu very soon.

Having a few terrifying issues with my own laptop right now, so blogging and photo editing is being severly restricted.  I’ll be back soon-ish!