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Michigan chestnuts and apples; important Swiss cheese.  Autumn is in the air! Chestnuts love... And these....  Look like little hot peppers :)  

Actually, the recipe is a cake.  But it makes perfect muffins.  Especially because it's a dense and sturdy and moist cake filled with grated zucchini, lots of cocoa, and both butter and oil and eggs.  Plus buttermilk gives it that muffin-like texture and crumb.   The muffins are perfect for this time of year with zucchini is at its peak and grows like crazy (like the giant zucchini behind the muffins).

I made lace jelly this week after picking the Queen Anne's Lace at my parent's farm in Wisconsin.   It's really fun to make foraged wildflower jellies.  Just be very positive in identifying Queen Anne's Lace because it can be mistaken for Poison Hemlock, which is fatally poisonous.  There are many sources to help one identify the safe Queen Anne's Lace plant. I got the jars at Walmart and they are cute little jars with a jewel-cut textured side.  I plan to give some away this fall or for Christmas gifts.

We had a lot of fun picking and eating currants on the ranch.  There are both golden and red currants.  We bought a jelly bag so I could make jelly.  But I ran out of time before I had to come back to Chicago.    The currants are delicious with homemade granola.  Here a neighbor friend made some as a gift. A forgotten flower bouquet from friends that has dried quite nicely. Some hand-picked pie cherries.  There are both pie and sweet cherry trees full of fruit right now.