Applesauce Day

Yesterday I bought a bushel of "seconds" apples at our local orchard.  

That was 167 apples, if you're wondering.  Finn and I counted them as we washed them this morning.....

And my dear neighbor Naomi and I spent all day making applesauce.  She graciously offered her kitchen and her equipment for this (and fed us lunch!).  I'd never made applesauce before, and it was valuable to have a guide.  

Yield: 

*7 quarts canned applesauce

*5 quarts fresh applesauce (to be made into apple butter) 

*19 one-cup portions of applesauce, frozen

*3 two-cup portions, frozen

Our total yield was just over 18 quarts.

One of my children doesn't like applesauce.  This will last us all winter for sure! 

 Finn and I plan to make apple butter within the next few days and sell it as a fundraiser--he has decided he wants to raise $1,000 to donate to helping build a medical clinic in a developing nation.  The apple butter is our first step, and we're brainstorming additional ideas. For past fundraisers we've sold his artwork on notecards and sold Christmas tins of gluten-free goodies, and we'll probably do both this year.

Now it's time for a hot bath and bed.....applesauce day was exhausting!

Grape Juice

A few weeks ago my neighbor brought over some home-canned grape juice.  She and her mother had bought loads of Concord grapes and turned them into delicious juice--no sugar. 

I waited until nighttime before I opened the first can.  And then I lost my head...because when I was growing up, we always had some grape juice on hand. My grandmother canned it using the Concord grapes she grew in her yard, and she used gallon jars and always left a layer of grapes in the bottom of the jar (I think it was a decorative touch).  That smell is unlike anything else; store-bought grape juice does not resemble it at all.  

I diluted the pint of grape juice with a pint of water, per my neighbor's instructions (she cans concentrate), and then I drank it.  And drank it. I think I drank half the quart. It was winter and I was 12 years old and we had just brought the grape juice up from the basement to open it.......

Evocative. 

Thank you, Naomi!  I will be relishing these jars all winter long.