I Think, I Can!

 These are the photos we took documenting my canning adventures! Though this was not my first time making applesauce and the likes, it was my first time trying hot-water bath canning.

 Before I could get to the jars, I had to do a little research & preparation. Then I had to get the apples ready to go.

This is my brand new apple peeler! I love it! I never could have gotten through 300-some apples without it! I thought those ribbons of peels were just beautiful!

And honestly, I didn't really get tired of using the peeler. I know that you would think somewhere around the 153rd apple, it wouldn't be fun anymore, but it was generally a good time... a lot of work, but the good kind!

 Apples, apples... everywhere! I worked in batches of about 20-30 apples, depending on the sizes of the apples.

Now, here's where things started to get sticky, literally! I canned for several hours each day during one week. Once you started, you just had to go with it because once you get the apples peeled and sliced there is sticky, apple juice and little apple chunks everywhere. It's best to just work through it and do a big clean-up at the end of each day.

 The next step was coring & slicing. I know that my peeler can do this step, but I didn't like the result, so I used my corer/slicer instead.

Then the apples go into a pot to cook!

While the apples cooked, I started preparing my jars. My canning process involved a LOT of multi-tasking. I was constantly moving to get jars ready or peel more apples. Kudos to the pioneer women who started everything from scratch. It takes a lot of work!

I used a crock-pot to keep my cooked apples hot while I prepared jars or had other batches in the canner. This is a scrumptious looking bite of my applesmash: a chunky, sweetened & spiced apple dessert.

 This was one of my first batches of applesauce in the canner. I can tell it's one of the first batches because there are only 3 jars in there. When you're working with a lot of apples and two small children underfoot, you've gotta keep the production line going.

 Success! It took a lot of time & effort, but the results are worth it! All of my jars sealed, and now I have beautiful jars of applesauce, applesmash & apple chunks!