Apple Cooking Time

Degen using the apple peeler.

 

I have been in the kitchen every weekend since we went apple picking (and truthfully, every weekend since we started taking crop in from the garden). I love canning in the fall! The summer's heat is made no less bearable by boiling large pots of water on the stove for hours & hours, but in the autumn, you can open a window to feel the sharp, cool breeze and the house gets cozy with the warmth from the kitchen. It also smells wonderful! Canning pickles is not perhaps the most appetizing aroma, but apples, sugar & spice make the house smell like home during the holidays. Yum! I have processed about half of the apples we picked (only half!) and have canned: fancy applesauce, apple smash, cinnamon hot apples and apple butter. We are running out of jars faster than we are running out of apples at this point!

 

Kyrie mixing apples & spices.

 

Before we had even headed out to the orchard, the kids had talked about making an apple pie. So, one afternoon I gathered up my helpers to make one for that evening's dessert. Making a pie involves quite a bit, but they helped peel apples, pour ingredients, mix spices and put the apples in the crust. And, of course, they helped eat it, too!