Apple Days

Jeremiah and Arianna collect apples that we have shaken down from the trees

Mom's nifty machine

Last Friday was a beautiful fall day. My friend Amy and all of our kids loaded into our van to go apple picking at the free orchard outside of town. We had an enjoyable time and each got a couple of buckets of apples!

So, this weekend was spent making applesauce, apple butter, dried apples, and fruit leather. My fruit leather, however did NOT turn out even though I made it thicker the second time and only put it in for half the time the second time. A dehydrator would probably do a much better job on the fruit leather but I don't have one so I was using the recipe from http://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/ I think my oven just tends to be hotter than it says!



My mom loaned me a really nifty machine she has that makes it very easy to make applesauce. You just chop the apples up and cook them until they are tender and then put them into the machine and twist the crank. The peels and cores and seeds come out one end into a discard bowl and the applesauce comes down the little slide into your applesauce bowl. Then you can cook it on the stove, adding cinnamon and sugar as needed. My mom makes hers by adding a bag of red hots to the bowl, which makes for some pretty pink and yummy tasting applesauce!