Exploding Apples

Ok, I know. I’m late with the post. It’s Thursday night at 8:27. It’s been a very busy week. But then August usually is. My kids are gone so it’s not school, which has started in our district. August means canning and freezing.

In July is sweet corn which I blanch, cut off the cob and freeze. It’s a messy chore but worth it. The corn tastes so good in the winter. When my niece was young she would come and visit her grandparents each summer. So did her brother but he was out on the farm with the guys.

My niece loved to come over to help when I did the corn. We had a great time cutting that corn and developed a very good friendship. The men would pick it in the morning, shuck it and I’d have the pot boiling. There’s not much better than having your husband say he’s going to pick the corn for supper and you put the water on so it’s boiling when he gets home. Yumm.

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August is tomatoes and apples. The beginning anyway. I love making applesauce. It’s so easy and sooooooo much better than that stuff they sell in the grocery store that they call applesauce. It has no flavor compared to the real thing. It’s also very easy to make. If you have the apples.

This year was what I thought would be the first year I got apples off my own trees. I planted three of them several years ago so they could have produced this year. One at least was covered with blossoms. I think we may have had a nip of frost during bloom and it must have been widespread since almost no one has apples this year.
I say almost because a friend’s daughter has three huge trees so loaded down the limbs are beginning to break. Many are small because of the drought. If all the apples were full size the entire tree would have collapsed.

I picked a 32 qt bin last week from the low branches. Wednesday my hubby and I took in a long step ladder and picked about a trillion, well, maybe a billion, okay, a lot of apples. So I spent yesterday afternoon on the first of the apples.

I have this large pot. My normal routine is cutting up enough apples to fill the pot. Add some water and cook them until the explode. If you try making some you’ll know what I mean.

Today, however, I had decided to cut up enough for all four burners on my stove. Trouble was I didn’t get started until late so I only got two  filled and cooked.

The cooked apples now reside in the refrigerator waiting for me to finish the sauce and water bath can it and line the jars up on the shelves in the basement.

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There are still more apples sitting on my kitchen floor in a bag and the bin. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get ambitious and make some into pies to freeze. Ready to cook fresh apple pie all prepared for the holidays. Isn’t apple season wonderful?

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