Apples, Apples, and More Apples

While Mark is working on other projects outdoors, I am canning applesauce.

Mark and I spent one afternoon early this week picking about ten bushels of apples - enough for eating apples, applesauce, cobblers, and pies.  Our grand children like applesauce, especially Liam.  Keva LOVES apple pie, especially my apple crumb pie.  Mark is a cobbler fan, so this is a must-do! 

We are still getting to know where all our fruit trees are here, what types they are, and when they ripen.  Some of the apple trees are voluntary thanks to the birds and other animals, eating the apples and depositing the seeds in various places in and along the edge of our woods. We even have one apple tree growing so close to a pine tree that their trunks almost touch and their branches thoroughly intertwine - they seem to have protected each other from the wind and pests.  Some of our best eating apples came from that tree.  None of our trees have been sprayed with anything - they are all very natural.

We think only a few of our trees are summer apple trees that ripen in early August. Most of them ripen about Oct 15-18. We picked all that we could reach either on foot or on a ladder, the rest we left to ripen and drop to feed our large deer population.  Mark won't be hunting this fall unless the deer comes to the door and says, "Shoot me!"  There is just still too much to get done before the snow flies (approx Nov 15) and deer season starts at that time.  As you can see below - some of the apples have the really white pulp, some seem to be golden delicious, and some are russet in color and texture.

Most of them are smaller than last year - probably due to the cool summer

I've found that mixed apples make the best flavored applesauce so I take some of each type of apple

Thank God and my sister, Diane, for my Squeezo -it allows me to cook the apples with the peel on and then let the Squeezo take out the peel any seeds that I've missed

I add only two ingredients - lemon juice to keep them from browning and honey instead of sugar to sweeten.  The apples are a little more tart this year too, so I've had to add a little more honey than usual

The first quarts processed - pints will come last

Alone, I can cut up and process about 18 quarts OR 36 pints a day.  I figure that I have the next two weeks to get through all the canning apples - just in time for the kids to visit over Thanksgiving.
Then we'll use the rest of the apples for pies, cobblers, and munching.  YUM!!  I can't wait!