Applesauce

A couple of weeks ago we had a really nasty storm blow through. A tornado touched down about 3 blocks from our house; trees were down everywhere; power was out for several for up to a week. We lost our power for about 20 hours.

When we were picking up in the backyard, we realized the wind had blown several of our apples out of our apple tree. Not wanting to let these go to waste, I decided to make applesauce.

Applesauce is so quick and easy to make. All I did was wash the apples and cut them in halves or quarters, depending on how big they were. I put them in a large pan and added a little water - enough to keep them from sticking on the bottom and burning, but not enough to make them soupy.



I put on a lid and gently steamed the apples to make them soft. Once they were soft, I put them through my food mill so I could get just the good apple pulp.

I put this back in a clean pan, added some cinnamon and nutmeg, a little honey and some sugar to taste.



Brought this to a slow boil, then put the applesauce in hot jars and steam canned the jars for 20 minutes. I made 6 pints in no time and we've really been enjoying it!



On the home canning list for the coming weeks this summer: Blueberry Spice Preserves, Strawberry Preserves, Cucumber Relish, Sweet Pickle Relish, Bread and Butter Pickles, Sweet Pickles, Applesauce, Apple Butter, Pickled Pears, Pear Butter, Brandied Pears, Pears in Syrup, Fig Preserves, Pickled Okra, Tomato Preserves, Tomato-Apple Chutney, and I'm sure a few others I'm forgetting!