Today is apples!

[Spike]

Gonna be canning applesauce and apple butter today. House smells delightful!

[Spike]

So very sick of apples Been at this all day. Have 14 pints of applesauce all canned up and the apple butter is simmering away and should be done early-ish tomorrow!

[MissS]

@Spike and tomorrow is apple pie day!!!

[worth1]

Apple fritters.

[Spike]

Mama used to make apple crisp but was to lazy to core and peel the apples. Nasty stuff!

[Labradors]

Ha ha (about being too lazy). I dehydrated a whole pile of windfall "Liberties" yesterday and was also sick of peeling and coring, so I suggested that hubby prep the apples while I made the crisp part (and also a quiche while the oven was on). He was happy to help because he loves apple crisp .

Linda

[worth1]

Apples and potatoes tought me my knife skills in grade school.
We had tons of Apples to peel and make stuff out of almost every year.
I ate all the peels I could and the chickens got the rest.

[Labradors]

I leave the peels on if the apples have been picked, but we've had so many windfalls and there are bruises on those, so I have to peel them to reveal. Last year, I dehydrated one batch with peels and another without and both were great . I never even thought about the chickens! They don't like whole apples or even pieces of apple, but I bet they could manage to eat the peels..... Next time!


Linda

[Seven Bends]

We headed out to an orchard this weekend also, making good use of our first beautiful, crisp, breezy, chilly, fall-feeling day of the year. Virginia used to be the largest apple producer in the US; now we're down to #6, growing just 2% of the country's apples. I grew up going to pick-your-own apple orchards in northwestern Virginia every autumn, but they're mostly gone now, knocked down for pasture land and housing subdivisions.

The orchard had a few recipes out on the counter for customers to take. I picked up this one for "Mary Williams's Fried Apples." Enjoy, all you bacon-lovers! I can't wait to try it.

8-12 apples
3 slices of bacon
1/2-3/4 cup mixed brown & white sugar
1 Tbsp butter

Peel and slice apples (leave some of the peel on). Fry the bacon and remove it from skillet*. Add apples to the bacon grease and cook until tender and almost dry. Add sugar and butter. Stir gently. Optional: add cinnamon. (*note -- reserve the cooked bacon for another use)

[Shule]

Mama used to make apple crisp but was to lazy to core and peel the apples. Nasty stuff!

I like peels in apple crisp. I'm not into the cores, seeds, and stems, though!

[worth1]

When I was a kid I would eat the whole apple like a goat.
The only part I didn't eat was the stem.

[bower]

You got the apples @Spike and all the peeling and coring... but I grew the oats for that crisp.
Never grew grains before. No equipment for these little crops.
I have hand shucked spelt, emmer, wheat, barley, no problem with any of these. Easy enough to get the grains out. It's like they're designed for beaks, you can pop em off easily with the right moves.
But the OATS!! The seeds can be removed with a similar motion, but since each one is on a little dangle you don't have the support of the main stem for your action. And then half of these "hull less" oats are still in a bit of a hull. They weigh the same as a hulled oat so can't be separated by gravity. You have to squint and pick em out..... Anyway, I think the only solution for these is animals. Ponies, chickens, you know the drill.
I'll peel your apples any day, if you just shuck these oats for me, and then we'll make a dandy crisp.

[Tormahto]

My heirloom apple haul today...

Belle de Boskoop
Black Oxford
Blue Pearman
Claygate Pearman
Cox's Orange Pippen
D'Arcy Spice
Hudson's Golden Gem
Knobbed Russet
Newtown Pippen
Nod Head
Orleans Rienette
Rienette Clochard
Roxbury Russet
Swarr
Zabergau Rienette

I found most of what I was looking for.

[JRinPA]

I have done some applesauce, but mostly I do pears from our tree. When there is a bumper crop we make lots of sauce and pear butter, but the last big one was 2018. We still have plenty from then. Pear butter in particular lasts for a long time. The lean years, I'll only make pear syrup.

It is pretty easy though, with the victorio mill, to do pear sauce. I can't say I've ever gotten sick of it.

@Spike did you put anything in the apple butter, spice wise?

[Spike]

@JRinPA Yes! All Spice, Nutmeg, Cloves and Cinnamon. Plus I use dark brown sugar also.