The Great Applesauce Endeavor, Stage 1

Time: October 15th, 9:30am start
Participants: Ma Hoyt and the following slaves: Mystery Guest, Derek, Melinda, Carolyn, Ethan, Nolan and Trevor.

With the glad promise of minimal school, the kids have gathered 'round the kitchen table for a day of applesauce production.
The cutting begins as Trevor--still in pajamas--waits for the sign to open the bag of sugar..."Not yet, Trevor."

Derek wasn't in the picture yet because he had to go get his pro-time. (Oh sure...like THAT's an excuse)

You have to have reached a certain age of dependability before Ma will entrust you with a knife. Ethan, almost eleven, has been halving apples for a couple of years, despite being left-handed.
And what is this? A cameo appearance by Kendra! She had zipped in for a long weekend during her Fall Break. It was only the merest of coincidences that this coincided with applesauce day :-D ("No, not yet, Trevor")

Finally dressed, the wee lad goes out to the addition to load up more apples for washing.
These two boxes were each approximately half-filled with Red Delicious from 2.5 apple trees (one of the three is dying)

Once the four pans were filled and bubbling, the apple cutters got their first break of the day.
That blue rag is one of my most important tools. I wipe the stove almost constantly. I learned a hard lesson at the end of the day years ago when trying to clean off cooked-on glops and drips of apple bits. Clean-as-you-go, baby. CLEAN-AS-YOU-GO.

Hey...I may not be the best of housekeepers but applesauce-stove-wiping is one area in which I excel.

OOOoooo! Time to put in the sugar :-) Uhhh...what are those finger-sized dips in the sugar, guys?


Trevor-the-bonny-wee-lad stirs in the sweetener.
He prefers the Spin-the-Spoon method.

("C'mon Treovr...pick up the pace")

Once the finished sauce has cooled it's time to start filling up freezer containers.
(Try not to spill, Nolan....)

Trevor gets the prize for volunteering the most times to take out squished apple peels to the now flattened compost pile. "Awoh you 'bout done Mommy? It's chillwy out hewoh..."


Trevor takes his turn at "dipping," as he calls it.
In the background you can see Kendra processing the cooked apple mush through the sieve. (thought I had a better picture of this...)

We ate lunch in shifts so as not to shut down production. (poor Loren was shunted to the rec room for his meal) As the afternoon rolled on we became ever more efficient. Kendra ended up working the ricer full-time which meant that the apple cutters never got far enough ahead to take any more breaks.

MWAH, HA, HAH!

By 3:00 they were practically BEGGING me to do school, instead.

The ceremonial washing of the final apple! Most of them were bigger than this one.


By 4:00 the last apple was cut and the kids stumbled off to soak their hands in Epsom Salts. Kendra finished running the mash through at 4:30 and even though I washed each pan and bowl as it became free, it took me until 5:00 to complete cleanup.

Here it be...results of all the Red Delicious apples.
It made approximately 78 quarts :-)

In about two weeks or so we'll start on stage 2, apples from the "little" tree. It's a Dwarf Wealthy variety but produces almost as much the other three combined.

I finally got the remaining sauce into the freezer on the second evening and it's still not frozen.

Great crop, though.

But I am requesting prayer for the ice cream...
 

Tweet