Apple Season, (oh how we LOVE apple season) is finally winding down around here. It seemed to go on forever this year!! Apples are a staple, so no one was complaining. Everytime we turned around we had more apples showing up at our door. My very sweet mother in law brought us oodles from “up north” (you have to be a local to truly understand why this term requires quotation). We scored a fantastic deal from our co-op. Finally a good friend, who has apples trees, brought over bushels!!!! Now we don’t have a root cellar or, anything close to it, for storing apples long term …..so a whole lot of processing is what we did. Thankfully, I have lots of helpers and plenty of fun apple processing gadgets that my helpers enjoy using!!
So what did we do you ask???
Well, we started with dehydrating. The coring, peeling and slicing machine was oh so fun to use!! Then came the apple pies. We made one fresh pie and then cut and froze dozens of apples for future pies!! Apple sauce and Apple Butter were next. I like to make big batches of apple sauce to freeze for future baking. I also freeze the apple butter (one day I will conquer my fears and just can everything!!!) And finally we finished with JUICING!! We adore fresh apple juice and generally finish off the batch instantly. So this year I was determined to freeze (I know, I know, freezer again!) a few batches that we could pull out for fresh cider. I am proud to announce that we have 5 batches in the freezer, well 4. One was pulled out on Halloween. I put it in the crock pot that morning on low, added mulling spices and let it sit all day. We came home from trick or treating cold and dripping, it was a soggy Halloween in Wisconsin this year. That hot cup of cider was just perfect….
Oh, I almost forgot. We also made apple prints and strung some up to dry with cinnamon sticks!!! And that was it…. well that and my kids eating apples to their hearts content!!!
Have I mentioned how much we LOVE apple season.
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