Apple Season
November 5, 2012
Chunky applesauce
Windfall Kings
It’s definitely fall, and apple season. I’ve been pecking away at the apples and replenishing our applesauce stock. My canning records show the last time I made applesauce in any quantity was 2009. Just like the prune records, 2009 was a good fruit year.
On the agenda today? Picking more apples by daylight, making applesauce after dark now 😦
How are you liking the time change?
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Throwback at Trapper Creek 
Hooray for Applesauce! I realized that I have to donate the apple pie filling I made in years previous to friends/family as my recipe has flour in it and I can no longer it is. Disappointing! But at least someone will benefit!
Sounds like a plan!
Boo hiss.
I just read an old Indian response to the concept of daylight savings time and that went something like, “Only the government would cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it on the bottom and think the blanket was longer”… too lazy to look it up for accuracy – maybe someone else can tell it better…
Can you believe I do not like applesauce? I must be the only one… it smells good, looks good, I want it, but just don’t eat it. Same with fruit butters…
AMF, so true!
I only like the chunky stuff made with heirlooms, newer apple varieties are too sweet for me, and the food mill stuff is gross. Applesauce here is a vehicle for pork 😉 And I’m an apple snob!
Not liking to have to be back in the house at 4:45 because it’s too DARK to do anything outdoors, especially on a mild, fall, day like yesterday!! It was so warm…well 61…that some of the birds were singing as I was tidying up the gardens…it almost felt like spring then Bam…it got Dark! 😦
Nice photo of your chunky applesauce…can you share your recipe? It looks delicious!
Chris, I know, I am dreading the 4:20 darkness that is on its way, and the cold weather by the end of the week 😦
Not much of a recipe, just peel, core, slice, sugar if needed, spices optional, one cup of water to a 5 quart kettle, cook, stirring gently until all slices are heated through and the mix is part sauce, part slices. At this point I can it. I use a pressure canner, but most use water bath. Meanwhile I’m doing the next batch while the canner is going, and then losing pressure. Then I lose pressure;)
I’m still plugging away at apples too. Same kind, by the looks of it, too! The time change? The early evening surprised me yesterday – I forgot that end of things. A bit more light in the mornings is always welcome, though.
SSF, I was hoping for dry today, so I could pick more apples before the bear(s) gets them, and woke up to rain 😦 I guess it’ll be this afternoon then. Fingers crossed!
Hopefully in a week we’ll all be adjusted – Jane was not too happy! Apple peelings soothed her a bit though!
Funny to see the differences in gardening zones. Here in 5A the apples are gone other than the ones in storage and all the sauce is already on the shelves. Just finished trimming
my trees and getting them ready for winter. As far as the time change to this day I fail to understand the need for a time change : ) It seems like my day just gets started good and then suddenly it is over…..
CQ, Some apples here hang on the tree well into winter, depending on the variety. I still have to pick Grimes Golden, Northern Spy, Blue Pearmain, and some more Kings. All keep really well too in a box on the north porch. That way I can make pie as I go. I think on the other end of things too you are much earlier in spring than we are. I plant my main garden at the end of May unless I am planting in the greenhouse. So even though we are a zone 7 – 8 we don’t have an easy garden season compared to your zone 5. It’s pretty amazing how the Pacific really moderates our temperatures and keeps us from the extreme heat and the extreme cold.
I do not understand the DST at all. Pretty soon if they keep extending it on both ends it will all be the same anyway.
I really liked leaving the house for work in sunlight, but when I got home the porch lights were on. I don’t look forward to the steady diet of that. But…life is what it is, and I will keep smiling no matter what. The alternative is just so…final!
I love that DST is over for another few months!
We raided a neighbor’s tree before the first hard frost and came away with 50 pounds of apples. Since we have a large shelf of applesauce from earlier “raids,” I’m making cider and apple rings. It’s so wonderful to have neighbors who don’t want their apples until we have our own producing orchard!
Applesauce, apple butter, apple pie in a jar, apple cider. Peeled and sliced? Cooked whole and mashed through a food mill? Eaten raw and whole? Yes.
Pears too.
Not to mention the rest of the garden. Last of the tomatoes and peppers for salsa, fall broccoli bumper crop, etc. No end. And that’s a good thing.
I’ll stick with the sauce and then the raw and an occasional pie 🙂 My daughter thinks the sauce is like a gluten free pie. Feast or famine here, more apples than we can use this year, and it may be 3 years before we see them again in any quantity 😦
I’m envious of your bounty but happy that you have it. Its my desire that my newest trees ( freshly planted) will yield such a wonderful bounty in a few years.
I grew up out in the country so I am used to being able to look up at the sky and know what time it is roughly. Daylight savings time messes me up twice a year! I am also grumpy now because it is going to be dark when I get home from work every day. I was enjoying the daylight.
I usually don’t mind the short, dark days. It’s a nice respite from the wildness of summer. However, I’ve still got so much to do; I don’t feel like I can rest yet!
Would you introduce your apple sauce recipe please? I got a lot of apples from the garden and don’t know what to do with them!
paprica, look at my reply to Chris above, that’s pretty much it, just a method more than a recipe. For canning times look at the Ball blue book, or what ever is your go to canning book. 🙂 Happy canning!
I miss apple season so much – I’m living in Mexico this year so no apples for me. It’s my favorite preserving season, even though it kicks my butt. Normally I would be pressing cider, canning applesauce, drying apple rings for the kid’s lunches, and brewing hard cider. And eating lots of fresh new crop apples, of course! Apples are my favorite fruit and no amount of pineapples, avocados, mangos, or oranges can make up for the lack of them.
Aimee, I have to say I agree, apples are pretty hard to beat 🙂
I don’t like the time change. It’s too cold to be in the gardens that early. When I can get out when it’s warmed up, I’ve lost an hour I could be working. Hate that it’s dark before supper…
We have covered our tomato plants next to the porch with plastic and are still able to pick some light red ones. We just picked all the peppers. Do you dry any peppers or use them up in salsa?
Bluejeanqueen13, I grew some paprika last year and they were so prolific I still have a gallon jar of them that I dried, but they are still pretty tasty! The rest we freeze, and last night I baked some pimientos with cheese, YUMMY and pretty fast too. I only have about 15 tomatoes left 😦
This is our first year with apple trees since we moved last December. None of them are identified except for one that we think is an Early Transparent. Those apples made excellent sauce! One tree looked like a Golden Delicious and was horrible. Several others that are green with a red blush are finally ripening and are excellent. I am delighted that my daughter likes our apples better than the storebought ones because they don’t have “wax” on them!
Yeah, I was going to look at them and eat one and see what they were…Northern Spy maybe? Or bring you Northern Spy to taste and see what you thought.