Applesauce

Fall is the time of year to pick apples so that's what we did, went out to the country and picked apples at an orchard near our friends' farm.  We made applesauce from the apples and now a dozen quarts are canned, waiting to be given as gifts and eaten!  I make my applesauce with cinnamon, Trader Joe's organic raw turbinado sugar and the secret ingrediant...cranberries! I don't know how much of the cinnamon, sugar and cranberries I put in-I do it by taste to get the right about of sweet and tart!   I prefer to use fresh cranberries, but frozen or dried work well also.  I will probably do another batch of applesauce in the near future!

This year I tried making apple butter in the crockpots.  I cooked the apples for well over 24 hours on low and the house sure smelled great!  I added some cinnamon and sugar, once again to taste.  My crockpots are 3 and 6 quarts, and when it was all cooked down, I got 4 pints of apple butter, which wasn't enough to can.  It was easier to make it in the crockpots so I didn't have to watch and stir it much.  It was still quite a bit of work for only 4 pints but we have been enjoying it.  Perhaps I will try it again this fall and just can some of it to keep longer.  Right now I have the apple butter in the fridge, where it will keep for awhile.  

One of the apple trees loaded with yummy apples!  

I think this was a Jonathan apple tree if I remember correctly!

I like to mix the varieties of apples I use in the applesauce to blend the tastes.  I like most varieties, except for Red Delicious, which, despite their name, don't taste too delicious to me!  

That's what's been going on in this Suburban Homestead lately!