Apples to Applesauce

I recently visited friends in Sumas Prairie and they generously offered that I could pick as many apples as I wished from their beautiful 40-year-old apple trees.  The apples were of all different sizes and contained the occasional worm, but so what?!  They tasted great and it was nice to have the opportunity to obtain fresh, organic and local produce.

20 pounds later, I decided that this was time to learn to make applesauce!  The idea of making applesauce seemed a bit daunting, but after all, what is a girl going to do with so many apples?

I patched together what I needed – my Grandma gave me canning jars and I borrowed a canner and a food press.

• I first quartered the apples and removed any bad spots, but left the skins and cores.
• Then I boiled the apples until soft.
• The food press was a huge time saver, allowing me to extract the apple pulp while leaving behind the skins and pits.
• The apples were a bit on the tart side, so I added a small amount of sugar and also flavored it with cinnamon.
• Finally, I scooped the applesauce into jars and ran them in the water bath canner (for more detail on canning procedures click here).

You can find the complete recipe I used here.

The end result – delicious!  The applesauce had a lot of subtle flavors that far surpassed the bland applesauce that I would normally get at the store.

It also felt great knowing what I was eating – taking part in the process from farm to kitchen.

Now, time to take a break and eat some applesauce!