Monday, September 24, 2007

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me....

Two weeks ago a friend and I took our families up to Date Creek Ranch north of Wickenburg to pick apples. This is the same ranch where we picked peaches in July. It was a lovely day for a trip and we had a great time. In under two hours we had collectively picked 68 pounds of apples (I think they were Golden Delicious). And they were yummy! Whew! Even the little ones got into the act, and my son climbed his first tree. :) We took our haul up to the stand and paid, grabbed hot dogs all around, and the kids fed apples to the horses. We had decided to each take half of the apples, and we would get together later in the week and have a canning party and split whatever we made. So the next weekend we canned apples. And canned apples. And canned apples. Boy, they sure do cook down to almost nothing! We ended up with 5 quarts of apple sauce, 10 pints of apple butter, and enough apples left over for a couple of pies or crisps. And now we are both experts in the use of the food mill. :)

I am in the midst of several projects at the moment, and I hope to have some done this week, and I'm also working on a Riot update. So hopefully (fingers firmly crossed) I'll have some more posts later in the week. Onward, to the sewing machine!

1 comment:

Jenny said...

I've been enjoying preserving food this summer too. You're absolutely right that fruits and veggies cook down to almost nothing once canned. That's been one of my greatest disappointments in canning.

It's such a laborious process and it yields, comparatively, little. 40 lbs of tomatoes brings 7 quarts of peeled tomatoes and 5 pints of sauce. 50 lbs of apples yielded a few quarts of sauce and a few pints of butter.

At least we'll be eating well come winter, won't we?