I cooked all morning, running up between lessons and grading tests to take out cooked apples and put fresh apples back in. I finished cooking 2 1/2 bushels of apples around 1:15 pm.
Usually applesauce takes me two days. One to cook and run it through my mill and another to can it. I got done cooking the apples early enough that I thought perhaps I could get it all done before midnight. Nathan came through the kitchen, saw me set up the mill, and offered to help. He was a great help and we went through those apples much faster than if I had done it by myself. Needless to say, we did not have school in the afternoon.
I filled my electric cooker with the applesauce and added sugar to taste.
Aaron saw Nathan helping and wanted to take his turn at the mill.
At 3:15 we were done milling the applesauce. Notice the thin film of applesauce over every surface, every utensil, every bowl? That is why I do the marathon - only one clean up! Try as you might, you just can't keep the kitchen clean making applesauce.
At 3:40 pm, I put the first batch of applesauce into the canner. I had three more in the canner when I took this picture. I plan to head to bed as soon as I get those three out but I wanted you to see the (almost) final result.
Last batch was finished at 10:00 pm. The crockpot has applebutter in it. I'll cook it all night, then put more applesauce (in fridge) and sugar in it, cook it some more, and hopefully can it tomorrow. Whew! I am tired, but not near as tired as I would have been without the boys' help.
4 comments:
I said it on a previous comment, but congratulations again on the beautiful, bountiful applesauce. You surely got your exercise today, running up and down to homeschool AND process apples. Good multitasking!
By the way, I have a question for you. Could you recommend some good 3-season bulbs to plant this month? We have a small, "experimental" flowerbed that Ben cleared and cultivated this summer. We wanted to make it a 3-season garden. It's back in our field, next to our tractor shed, and it gets plenty of sun. I know that tulips and crocus (are those bulbs?) come up in the spring. Do you know some good summer and fall blooming bulbs we can try in there too?
Thanks! ~Betsy
I would recommend daffodils (spring crop) and iris. The iris are really tubers, not bulbs, but they bloom beautifully in the mid summer time here in Michigan. I don't know of any bulbs that bloom in the fall. Good fall flowers are mums which love full sun and which come back year after year.
there are some crocuses that are fall blooming and I *believe* (but am not 100% sure) that there are also some fall tulips. My sister has fall crocuses. Crocii? Sedum is another good perennial plant which adds interest all three seasons but gets it's beautiful color in the fall.
Karen, beautiful applesauce. And amazing, to me, that you ran back and forth doing school AND applesauce and didn't have any applesauce emergencies. I'm in awe.
That is why I use the electric cooker and crockpot. Apples and applesauce won't burn in them. And I put plenty of water on the pan on the stove so it wouldn't burn.
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