Apples, 2018

Our apples have been ready to be processed since August and our tree was especially full this year.  Which is nice given all of the hail we had over the summer.

Normally the apples are not ready until October.... which I think is predicting an early and harsh winter.

We've given a lot of apples away, since I haven't had time for processing.  But I borrowed my neighbor's orchard ladder (now on my to acquire list) over the weekend.  I picked 8 grocery sacks-full, gave a few sacks away and processed several batches.

I started with our favorite applesauce and tried apple pie filling and pickled apples.

I'm super excited about the pickled apples!  I wish I had time to make more.

In the last week we've had our first snow (10/10), first frost (10/12), +60F shorts and flip-flops weather (10/13), and first hard freeze (10/14).  It's back in the 50's-60's for the next several days.

I love this time of year.

Food: Apples with my Momma

I've been making applesauce pretty much every weekend for a month.  It's been slow going with just 4 or 5 pints per session since the first weekend.

So my Momma came over last weekend to help me make a dent on our apples.

Over 2 days we think we peeled more than 30 pounds of apples.  We aren't exactly sure since we only did the weighing after the peeling and trimming had been completed.

We made 4 batches of applesauce, 1 batch of apple butter and 1 batch of apple jelly that over-jelled and became apple candy instead.

making pectin

one jar of over-jelled apple jelly

saved and turned into powdered-sugar covered apple candy

I had a good time spending most of the weekend with my Momma.

19 pints of applesauce and 12 1/2pints of apple butter