The Progeny
Applesauce Day!
The morning dawned, clear and cold. While heading off to exercise, I glanced out the window to see a beautiful sunrise. I ran downstairs to snap a picture....
....I would need all the inspiration I could muster for this day.
Before any cutting can begin, each apple must be washed.
I had done up about 50 before breakfast, but Carolyn soon took over the main job of apple washing, though Kendra pitched in later to catch up with zealous cutters.
At times there were four people halving, coring and slicing.
Usually certain people were assigned certain tasks, but occasionally Ethan had to branch out from his beloved (and easy) halving. Despite many pleas to the contrary, Nolan was not given a knife.
Here we have proof that there actually were four pots on the stove! The large black one is a recent acquisition from Goodwill and made this day's venture more productive than ever.
If you look closely (Thainamu :-) you can see steam rising from two pots, while the burner is red hot under another. You'll just have to take my word for it that the fourth one was not a shill.
After the apples are cooked with a bit of water until soft, they are put through the ricer.
Ethan demonstrates this handy kitchen gadget. It separates the peels while allowing the apple goodness to ooze out through the little holes. I don't know if these are actually produced any more, for my mother got this one at a sale. She used to use it to make mashed potatoes as well as applesauce.
Even the youngest can be conned....I mean convinced to help out.
Trevor was quite willing to go out to the addition and bring in more apples for the washers. He started out with five or ten, but when he came in with a large dish tub full, the other kids broke out into spontaneous cheering.
("Wait a sec....hold still so I can get your picture.....no, over a little bit....whaddya mean it's getting heavy?.....")
Nolan was happy to start filling freezer containers with the finished product. He also stirred sugar into the apply mass, and helped Trevor bring in more apples to wash.
But mostly, Nolan just kept asking if he could use a knife.....
Applesauce cooling in the pans. It was all I could do to find enough big pots and bowls to hold the stuff.
We didn't put all of it into the freezer at once, as that would have taken a LONG time to freeze. Also, I didn't want to compromise the huge turkey already sitting in there--a gift for some computer work Loren did.
In the end, we easily broke our old record of some 60 quarts finished in a single day. When it was all done and counted, 85 quarts were placed into the large chest freezer in the addition, :-) not counting a couple of quarts that we just ate.
And those are only from the Red Delicious trees. We still have several large boxes of apples from our VERY productive Dwarf Worthy tree, slated for saucing next week....by which time we should be recovered from yesterday's labors. The last pot was not pulled from the stove until 7:30, and there was much washing up to do and poor Ma's feet were MOST tired from all that standing, convincing Kendra and me of one thing--we would probably not make good farm wives (from the old days) and furthermore, I really do like my regular day job, which does allow some respite by sitting at my computer :-D
P.S. college personnel who do not initiate contact with their chère maman may or may not have access to the applesauce when they come home for Christmas break.
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....I would need all the inspiration I could muster for this day.
Before any cutting can begin, each apple must be washed.
I had done up about 50 before breakfast, but Carolyn soon took over the main job of apple washing, though Kendra pitched in later to catch up with zealous cutters.
At times there were four people halving, coring and slicing.
Usually certain people were assigned certain tasks, but occasionally Ethan had to branch out from his beloved (and easy) halving. Despite many pleas to the contrary, Nolan was not given a knife.
Here we have proof that there actually were four pots on the stove! The large black one is a recent acquisition from Goodwill and made this day's venture more productive than ever.
If you look closely (Thainamu :-) you can see steam rising from two pots, while the burner is red hot under another. You'll just have to take my word for it that the fourth one was not a shill.
After the apples are cooked with a bit of water until soft, they are put through the ricer.
Ethan demonstrates this handy kitchen gadget. It separates the peels while allowing the apple goodness to ooze out through the little holes. I don't know if these are actually produced any more, for my mother got this one at a sale. She used to use it to make mashed potatoes as well as applesauce.
Even the youngest can be conned....I mean convinced to help out.
Trevor was quite willing to go out to the addition and bring in more apples for the washers. He started out with five or ten, but when he came in with a large dish tub full, the other kids broke out into spontaneous cheering.
("Wait a sec....hold still so I can get your picture.....no, over a little bit....whaddya mean it's getting heavy?.....")
Nolan was happy to start filling freezer containers with the finished product. He also stirred sugar into the apply mass, and helped Trevor bring in more apples to wash.
But mostly, Nolan just kept asking if he could use a knife.....
Applesauce cooling in the pans. It was all I could do to find enough big pots and bowls to hold the stuff.
We didn't put all of it into the freezer at once, as that would have taken a LONG time to freeze. Also, I didn't want to compromise the huge turkey already sitting in there--a gift for some computer work Loren did.
In the end, we easily broke our old record of some 60 quarts finished in a single day. When it was all done and counted, 85 quarts were placed into the large chest freezer in the addition, :-) not counting a couple of quarts that we just ate.
And those are only from the Red Delicious trees. We still have several large boxes of apples from our VERY productive Dwarf Worthy tree, slated for saucing next week....by which time we should be recovered from yesterday's labors. The last pot was not pulled from the stove until 7:30, and there was much washing up to do and poor Ma's feet were MOST tired from all that standing, convincing Kendra and me of one thing--we would probably not make good farm wives (from the old days) and furthermore, I really do like my regular day job, which does allow some respite by sitting at my computer :-D
P.S. college personnel who do not initiate contact with their chère maman may or may not have access to the applesauce when they come home for Christmas break.
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posted by Ma Hoyt | 3:25 PM
2 Comments:
Wow, that all looks yummy. And pretty too. My mom used to have a gadget called a food mill that looked a bit different from yours, but we used it to make applesauce too. And I googled "food mill" and it appears similar such things do exist today.
What a record for quarts, querida mamá! I happened to see the post while at the house of a family from church yesterday; they enjoyed seeing the kids and were impressed by the quantity of applesauce. :)
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