An Apple A Day

One of my favorite things about Fall in Minnesota is the ALL THE APPLES! So many different flavors and crunch levels- so many ways to enjoy your “apple a day.”

Pine Tree Apple Orchard, the  orchard nearest us, has  some of my favorite varieties available right now! Apples in season include Sweet Tango, Honeycrisp, Haralson, Cortland, Red Delicious, Fireside and Regent.

Me, looking a little too excited about all the apples.

Pick a Peck ( or 7)
I got lucky this year! I found a friend (through the magic of a Facebook post) who had three beautiful trees that they weren’t going to be able to thoroughly use, and she let me come and pick my fill. I’m humbled by their generosity.😊

In farming and food rescue terms this is called “gleaning”. Regardless of what you call it, this was a win-win. I bet if you wanted, you too could end up with more apples than you know what to do with… but you’ll never know if you don’t ask!

These apples were organic perfection; a little apple scab here, some worm holes there, even a bird nest up in the branches. When other wild animals want my food, I see that as a really good sign that the food is good for me. No bugs around means they’ve all been killed, or would die from eating the food growing there (some food for thought). Also, it was as idyllic spot and array of trees. The previous owners knew what they were doing and planted complimentary varieties; Cortland, Honeycrisp, and Fireside. I got roughly a five gallon bucket full of each variety. 64 pounds in all (I had posted 54 pounds earlier on- but forgot about the bags I left in the garage to keep cool- oops!) 

So what does one do with all those apples??
I thought you’d never ask …

Apple a la Skin
I’m a big fan of eating apples old school- wash and eat. I even know a few (slightly crazy) people who eat the core, seeds and all. That’s not my cup of cider… but since nature provides us with a BOUNTY of apples all at once, our homesteading ancestors figured out so many amazing ways to make good use of all the parts of all those apples!

Storing your apples 
Refrigerate with damp towel, or find a damp cool 32-39º F spot ASAP!

Bobbing Beauties

Start with a ‘soak’ , I use a good splash of vinegar (kind of ironic that it’s apple cider vinegar) per big bowl of water and apples. I was going to buy a peeler/corer but I never found just what I was looking for, so I stuck it out another year with my trusty peeler and paring knife.

Since I tend to work with a rough and tumble group of fruits (always organic and usually growing wild so this year was a real treat) I have to cut out more than most- so I peel what I need to, saving any usable peelings as I go.

Sauce is the Boss

Almost done with the canning!

You figure out quickly how many bowls of apples you can cook down at a time, depending on your pots. I tend to prepare apples for sauce, peeling what I need to because of blemishes and coring each one. But instead of using the entire contents of cooked apples for sauce, I drain off a bit of juice with a jelly bag first. Then I throw the apple mash into my good old Nutri Bullet and whip it, whip it good. The skins melt into nothing, keeping the fiber and adding a beautiful blush to my sauce.

I made quite a bit of apple sauce this year, about 6 quarts and 6 pints so peeling all those apples would have driven me bonkers. You may be thinking, wow this is a lot of apple sauce for one family. And it is! I’ll be using over half of this throughout the year as I make my Crunchiest Granola Recipe.

I go by the University of Georgia’s info when canning. For applesauce I use the hot water bath canning method listed HERE. I also froze a few jars of both sizes, because I ran out of space, and steam (ha).

Freezing Apples
I also froze a few gallon bags of apple slices for a short cut to pies and crisps later in the season. Peeled, sliced and laid out on parchment.  I found Cortland froze the best out of the three varieties I had. U of MN Directions HERE

Peel Baby Peel
I couldn’t let all those apple peelings go to waste, so I did a few different things with them. (*note these were the peelings that did not have not have apple scab or holes in them, the chickens feasted on all those bits for days.)

Apple Cider Vinegar
I’d been wanting to try and make apple cider vinegar for a while, and I finally had my chance. Many recipes call for whole apples, but that seemed just wasteful. But my shining light of homestead happenings, Jill  at “The Prairie Homestead Companion” came to the rescue. She has a vinegar recipe for using apple scraps, peelings and cores; and, boy did I have those!

You basically add some sugar to water, dissolve and add that to the apple scraps, let it sit, ferment, strain, ferment again and refrigerate. Mine is almost ready…yup, I’m (a little too) excited to try this vinegar out in my cooking! *It is not a good idea to use homemade vinegar for canning unless you are fermentation pro*.

Apple Ginger Jelly
The other obvious choice for apple peelings (but not cores) is Apple Jelly! For this you boil the peelings down with added water for a bit and drain the juice off of that, this juice drains so much faster than the whole apples I let hang in my jelly bags! Also, no pectin needed when you use the peelings, because that’s where most of the fruit’s natural pectin is. Gotta love nature.  Again, I go by the University of Georgia’s Extension info when canning. I basically use this recipe. But I add in slivers of ginger and boil those along with jelly. Divine!

Apple Butter
Oh Apple Butter, that magical thick spread made from apples cooked with just the right blend of spices for hours on end. I use the lazy man’s crock pot version, I don’t follow an exact recipe, but this one from Kitchn looks close.  This stuff makes literally everything taste amazing. Bread (duh),  pork chops, granola, salad dressings…) Luckily it doesn’t take much apple butter to do the trick, because even though you can start with a crockpot brimming full of apple bits- by the time it ready to be pureed, you might have half the quantity left.  But that’s why it tastes so amazing; just like the dried apples have a concentrated apple taste, so does this apple butter, but spreadable with an extra depth from all the  spices!

Dehydrated Apples
 We went ahead and splurged on this dehydrator from Cabella’s  (which was on sale when we got it) because my husband also started making venison jerky. So for us the cost was worth it (can you believe how expensive the little packs of store bought jerky are?!). For those of you not ready to buy a large machine, I’ve seen lots of recipes for oven dried apple rings too…

I sliced apples (only Cortland and Honecrisp) into different thicknesses and found we all liked the slightly thicker slices left a little chewy- but that is the beauty of making it yourself- you get to decide how the final product tastes! This took 5-ish hours on the 135ºF setting.
ps- both my boys wanted these in their lunches for days after they were made 😊

Last but not least…all the Tasty Treats!!!

Apple Crisp

I’m no Martha Stewart. But I love her buttery apple crisp recipe to crumbles: I used a mix of Cortland and Fireside, added ginger, and spared a bit of both types of sugars.

Baked Apple Oatmeal

One Bowl Apple Cake
You had me at one bowl! Chew Out Loud posted this decadent One Bowl Apple Cake  just in time for me to think, ‘I can do that, it’s in ONE bowl…” and I’m so glad I did! My kids were through the roof- especially since I haven’t baked anything with a gluten flour in quite a while. I still did half the flour in white whole wheat and half in oat flour and it was perfection. The chopping took a while but I was in major apple take down mode so I was already in the zone. Not gonna lie, this and my LARGE mug of chai tea were breakfast two mornings in a row!

I snuck in canning time in between my normal routines for a week straight.  I think our family will be glad for the time spent as we spread that apple jelly or apple butter on warm toast, grab a quick spoon of apple sauce, or enjoy a easily made apple crisp in the depths of winter.

So while you’re out this weekend, pick a peck or seven… and see what becomes your family’s favorite way to eat an apple a day!

Dig In
Michelle