We have a produce auction fairly close to where we live, and both my husband and I love to go. Now I do go by myself sometimes because we have three kids and they do not want to go to the auction where they and have to be still and quiet. Now Curt doesn’t really like when I go by myself because he always says I get way to much but when the deals are good how can you not?
The last time I went I was on the hunt for Honeycrisp apples. That was the only thing on my list.
What I came home with was:
9 1/2 bushels of Honeycrisp apples
2 pecks Jalapeños
70 bell peppers
30 3lb bags of onions
2 pecks of cayenne peppers
I don’t think I went of my list that much?
Now came the time to process all those apples. What we like about Honeycrisp is they last a long time just in the fridge or a cool place. We put 2 bags in our fridge for fresh eating. Then came the question what to make now? We took 6 bags and made applesauce. From those 6 bags we got 24 quarts and 26 pints of applesauce. We also got 3 gallons of apple juice from making the sauce. The last bag I am making apple crisp to put in the freezer and have when I need quick desserts.
This year we did try a little bit different way of canning our applesauce we have a food mill to separate seeds and peels but in years past we have always peeled our apples before we ran them through the mill. This year we cored and sliced them but left the peels on then brought them to a boil to soften before running through the food mill. It worked well and was a lot faster than having to peel all the apples. Once we got into a groove it went fairly fast. Curt was coring the apples then would put them into a bowl, I would take the apple slice from the bowl into a stock pot into the stove let them come to a boil for 10 minutes. From there I would scoop into another bowl to cool down for 5 minutes. While the apples cooled, I’d but more slices into the stock pots to start heating up. Once cooled I’d run them through the food mill. I would then dump the applesauce into a large stock pot to be brought back to a boil before I would put them in jars. The longest part of the process was waiting for the apple to come to a boil to soften.
I put some water in each of the two stock pots I was using to soften apples so they wouldn’t burn or stick to the pot. I didn’t empty between each batch, I just added water when it needed it. Once I was all done, I poured the apple water into gallon jars with a screen to filter any leftover apple debris in the bottom. The end results were 3 gallons of apple juice that everyone loved.
What are some of your favorite apple recipes?
