canning applesauce

mom took me to apple jacks orchard out in delano. we got two pecks of paula reds for applesauce making, plus a peck of honeycrisp and a peck of sweetango for eating. those are my two all time favorite eating apples. they're both very crisp, sweet apples. they have a lovely crunch to them.


the paula reds were seconds, but they hadnt bagged them up in the clear bags yet. instead they just grabbed the regular paper bags for us since they didnt have any other bags out yet. two pecks of paula red seconds cost $18 seconds mean they're picked off the ground, not the tree. there are more likely to be smaller, or have defects, but they are just as many that have nothing wrong with them. fine for sauce making when they're going to be peeled and cored and sliced up and any defects are easily cut away.


all bags were one peck. had some trouble focusing my camera today i guess.


canning setup today is the canner, the stock pot to cook the apples down, and the little saucepan for sterilizing the lids.


wash up some jars (bonus watermelon i grew in my garden in the background)


the apples are on the small side


we use an old fashioned hand crank apple peeler/corer/slicer. makes quick work of the apples.


you just smack the apple on as straight as you can manage, crank it down, and your apple comes out all nicely sliced up, peeled, and the core stays behind.


peeled/sliced/cored apples go into a bowl of water with lemon juice to prevent browning. i ran the peeler. mom cut the ends off, broke the sliced apples into little chunks, and carved out the cores on the ones i put on crooked. its not always easy getting them on the peeler straight.


first stock pot full of apples


now the fun begins! we use a stick blender to puree the cooked down apples into sauce


going


going


gone! ladle into jars


fill the jars. add the lids and rings. run thru the canner.


unload the canner


do it all again and fill the stockpot a second time


fill the canner again


save the scraps for composting


and voila! applesauce!


of those two pecks of paula red seconds, we saved out about 10 apples for making applecrisp.
the first stock pot full cooked down to be 13 cups, or fill 5 jars
the second stock pot full cooked down to be 10 cups, or fill 4 jars.
for a total of 8 pints plus one odd size jar. the odd size jar is an atlass mason jar that is somewhere between a pint and a quart.

it took us two and a half hours.