10 Apples Up on Top

On Monday after I dropped the kids off at school my Mom and I went apple picking at Bob White's Acres (same place I got the peaches from). In no time at all we picked two baskets which equaled about 35 pounds of McIntosh apples.

This is the first time I've ever made my own applesauce but the way the girl child goes through it, I had to try. That's why Mom was on hand, she's done her own for years and was happy to teach me my grandmother's secrets. We washed the apples first and sliced/cored them. No peeling necessary. We piled as many of the slices as we could into a spaghetti pot and cooked them down until they were mushy. Then we put spoonfuls into the Apple Mill and strained the sauce through. I found that you had to make sure the apples were sufficiently cooked down or this would be hard, still doable but harder then it needs to be.

Once the whole pot of apples had been strained we added about a half a cup of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla to the sauce, stirred and started pouring into jars. My Mom freezes her applesauce but I hate waiting for it to defrost so I wanted to try canning it. Thanks to the peaches from a few weeks ago this was the easiest part. 35 pounds of apples for $21 + $14 for two cases of pint jars (bought at WalMart using $1 off coupons from last week's paper) = 22 pints of homemade applesauce for about $35. Definitely cheaper then those store bought snack cups.

 I may go back on Thursday to pick another basket. My Mom also froze trays of scalloped apples and I would like to make a crisp and a cake with them too. Isn't Fall wonderful?