We have several fruit trees in our yard, courtesy of the previous owners. This is the first year we have had an decent crop of apples and we ended up with about 150 apples! We think they are MacIntosh, so they are good cooking apples.
We decided to try our hand at making applesauce! It was a long process due to them having a lot of worms and being inconsistently shaped. I cored and took out the bugs but did not remove the skins. I wanted to keep some of the fiber and nutrients. We eventually got a crockpot full. I added some brown sugar and cinnamon sticks and set it to cook:
After cooking I put it in the blender and here is the result:
The applesauce was very tasty! I packed some in lunches with cinnamon sprinkled on top:
Of course this was a lot of apples, but not nearly all the apples. Therefore I decided to try my hand at apple butter. All you do for this is put it back in the crockpot after it has been blended. I added more sugar and some cloves and nutmeg and cooked on low with the lid ajar for 24 hours so it reduced. Yum!!
There was a LOT of apple butter and applesauce so I went out and bought myself a canning system! I am now a pioneer woman!
What a process! I have new respect for all those who have done this for years. It's a lot of work but I do think it is worth it. I will continue to can when our garden grows an abundance. I am expecting to have a million tomatoes soon. We have been eating them up to now but our crop is really coming in and I think we will not be able to keep up. So I might be trying those soon.
Anyway, here I am filling the applesauce jars:
And the apple butter is going in:
Finished products:
In total I canned 2 jars of apple pie filling, 4 jars of applesauce and 9 jars of apple butter. I made a apple crumble with the pie filling and OMG was it delicious! The apple butter has been used in lunches and is also a hit. We also gave one jar as a gift. I am thinking pumpkin bread with apple butter spread....
My grandmother would be so proud.
Thanks for Reading!
Deb
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