Apples, Apples, Apples!

We have this apple tree. Actually, we have more, but just one produced enough to do anything with. Last week I convinced my youngest child that he wanted to help me finish picking the tree. He's much taller than I am, and it all made perfect sense to me.....teenage child, very tall, lives at home, eats at home......well, you get the picture. Anyway, I had about 3-4 big boxes of apples on the kitchen counter. I made applesauce. Boy, did I make applesauce! Thank heavens for my really cool Victorio Strainer. Before I had this thing, I would never attempt to make much applesauce. But not now. All I have to do is cut them in quarters, cut out any buggy parts, cook them down a little, and run them through the strainer.


I got my jars all set up to can the applesauce. I ended up taking more than one day to do all this, because I started after I came home from work. I made a bunch one evening, and then the next day put the whole batch in the electric roaster to warm it up before I put it in jars to can.


A family can only eat so much applesauce, right? I still had some apples left over, so I made apple butter. Here it is, cooking down and smelling really good.


Oh, yum. Here's a few jars of the finished product. I can't wait to open up a jar and use it on toast, or in recipes! Next on the list to make? Pomegranate jelly! I LOVE fall!