A is for Apple

 Tonight is the last official summer evening of 2012. We spent this last week celebrating an early fall by processing apples. Our apple tree is a good producer, though I don't actually know what kind of apples they are, other than tasty, crisp, and a little tart. They range in size from tennis balls to soft balls. Every year though is a battle with the bugs and critters (nothing worse than a beautiful looking piece of fruit with a rotten core), and if we don't pick the fruit off the tree they fall and make applesauce on the ground underneath, or in the kayaks on the rack. I got to climb up in the tree this time around to make sure we really got them all and took advantage of all that we could reach. It can be hard, with the orange tree next to it and the fences behind it. It was pretty awesome to get up in that tree! It had been far too long since I climbed in a tree and it was worth every bruise and scratch.

We had a great haul this year (this is after the first round of canning). If only we could have beaten the wildlife and had even more - all the more to share! My guess is that we had about 80 pounds of usable fruit.

You can't process apples without the apple machine!! Seriously one of the best gifts that J ever gave me. Who doesn't want apples peeled, cored, and spiral sliced in moments? I love that these old school domestic practices are making a resurgence and its so easy to find tools like this. Fits in perfectly with our urban homesteader ambitions.

Earlier in the summer J had picked up a dehydrator at a garage sale and the apples seemed like the perfect opportunity to put it to the test. We processed the apples on the machine and placed the slices directly on the racks. Nothing added, just the goodness of our apple tree. A little more than a day later and tada...

Crisp, crunchy, all natural apple chips! I've been snacking on them all week and I wish I knew a way to preserve them as chips - I guess we need a vacuum sealer now. Then I could have fresh apple chips in a month, that would be awesome!

On to the applesauce now... I make applesauce the way I saw my mom make it. I don't know if there's a recipe written down, I just know what to do. Slice apples (my large stockpot does about 25 apples); cook in boiling water to soften apples (I eyeball the water to be enough to cover the apples, even though they float, you know what I mean - enough to be able to float the apples around and stir them) have to watch for boilover because I max the pot out, but it works; add sugars (I use brown & white - about 1.5 c total; I do have a sweet tooth, but this seems like a good amount for so many apples) and cinnamon to taste (probably 2-3 tablespoons); cook, stirring regularly, lower the heat and simmer as apples cook down (probably upwards of an hour - the apples will start to fall apart and will take on the darker color of the sugar and cinnamon); mash (I use my potato masher to help break down the apples, but not too much as I like it chunky); it's done when the apples are soft but chunky and the sauce is thickened. There very well might be some variance from mom's method there, but its what I remember and recreate - it sure tastes right. She did have one trick though which was to add a little bit of apricot pineapple jam - sometimes I do, but not always.

Last year when we first ventured into canning with applesauce we were much later in the season and only produced a handful of jars. This year we were on a mission - and we were uber successful! Just about 40 jars of apple sauce! And I still have another batch worth of apples - just need more jars - weekend plans I suppose. I love my applesauce on its own or on my porkchops. I don't think we are going to be able to eat it all so be on the lookout for an applesauce delivery! What do you like to eat with applesauce? Am I weird for the pork chop thing?