Apples 2013

It's been a great year for our apples! Last year we barely reaped anything from the two trees. To make up for it, we can hardly keep up this year. Local folks tell us this is a common progression. We've made applesauce, apple butter, and apple turnovers, and I've carried two cat litter boxes full up to church, and let three folks from church and the neighborhood pick their own. And there are still more waiting. I picked some apples tonight for another round of apple butter. The recipe I found takes 22 hours (!!) but is pretty much worth it. Here with a photo-essay of part one. I'll get a picture of the trees and the final steps in a second post.

Rinsing apples in the sink. Ours are 100% organic, which means we don't do anything to them, which means we take them as they come off the tree. Yellow jackets like them, and so do birds and squirrels, and so we have to clean up everything that comes along with that.

Peeling. A few years ago we invested in a peeler. It never has seen much action until this year. In fact this is probably the best year in 7 in terms of yield. We didn't loose many to insects, animals, blight, freezing, drought or anything. The first time I made apple butter and applesauce, I let Eli and Briggs work the peeler. They were at a football game tonight. It wasn't too bad on my own.

More of the peeler. Being organic, our apples come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. I had to do just a little bit of trimming up after the peeler this evening.

I think I used about 40 small and medium apples this evening; I forgot to count ahead of time. This is their condition after peeling.

Using the corer and slicer. This works great. I chop off the tops and bottoms and then use this tool to core and slice them. Some slices need trimming of leftover peel, or sores, and some have seeds. This part of the process goes pretty quickly.

The current batch as they begin in the slow cooker. Twenty-two hours later will be something quite different! The only other ingredient besides the apples at this point is apple cider vinegar, so the house has a distinctive aroma about it!