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Each year our apple tree bears it's little heart out! This year is no exception. The apples are smaller due to lack of rain but it is absolutely covered in them. A lot of them have already fallen to the ground because of the excessive heat and dry weather. The guineas and chickens love pecking on these during the day and there's always a doe or two eating apples at night when I flip the porch light on to let the dogs out.
Each year I find a few more ways to use the apples. Last year I made jelly but the long, tedious process of jelly bagging and squishing and straining and dripping made me decide I'd rather buy my apple jelly but then I found that wonderful thing I have been blogging about lately. The STEAM JUICER! It's on the stove now filled with apples, pouring out beautiful clear apple juice for jelly.
See....
I will also make a couple of apple pies over the next two to three weeks and I will can and freeze apple slices in syrup. My boys have gone through the 8 quarts of apples I canned last year and have started on the frozen ones. They request fried apples at least once a week and I can't resist making a few fried apple pies once I have them cooked.
I am also going to use apples in the Pear Custard Bar recipe. I tried this with fresh peaches and it was absolutely delicious! Don't tell the pears but the peaches were even better! Along with several bags of frozen peaches for this recipe, there will now be several bags of apples!
I also use my Roma Food Strainer to make applesauce and apple butter.
My husband uses my Pampered Chef apple peeler/corer gadget to make these apple rings. He dips them in cinnamon and sugar and dehydrates them. Yum!
A few calls go out to neighbors and friends and they come and pick apples for their own uses and then a couple of five gallon buckets are stored in a dark, cool, dry place to keep for feeding the deer and birds during the winter months.
Needless to say, our little apple tree provides a mighty harvest for many!
19 comments:
My poor tree isn't doing quite its usual amount this year. We had a late freeze and excessive water. I usually have several other people that will let us pick so we can make cider, and now wine!
Teresa
That jar of apple rings looks real good for snacks while hunting, I'll take a jar. :)
Whitetail Woods Blog / Muzzleloader Testing
Same here with supplying the neighborhood.When my tree bears, friends and neighbors keep them cleaned up.The smaller ones that are left behind, go to the goats,chickens, and neighbors cows.One year, I supplied my Mom's entire Sunday School class with all the apples they needed and wanted.We were covered up with apples that year.My tree has not done so good this season.
WoW... nice post. Thats really cool about the stream juicer! I really wish we had an apple tree on our property.
MMMM! Sounds totally yummy!! What kind of apples are they? Of course there aren't too many I don't like as long as they are tasty!!
Rose, I have no idea what kind they are. This tree was here when we moved. I do know that they mush easily for applesauce. My mom has a tree at her house and the apples on it will barely go through the screen on my strainer even after boiling them for a long time. I like that these make a really smooth sauce yet they do well canned in slices too. They are very tart until they are fully ripe then they are very sweet. When fully ripe they are green with reddish areas on them.
I will definitely try the Pear Custard Bars with apples. I read your profile and I am also a home transcriptionist. Have been transcribing for an orthopedic surgeon for nine years now, but have worked in the field for thirty three years.
Jerri
I seriously need to take care of my tree - such a shame to see it all full of knarly apples. I LOVE apple season. Such a wonderful time of year!
We're planning on giving this one a good trimming when it's time to prune. Some of the branches are getting too long and heavy when filled with apples and breaking.
Can you can just the juice you get from your juicer? I have one kid who loves fruit and one who could take it or leave it. I thought it would be great if I could can her some pure fruit juice.
Yes Deb you can! The instructions tell you to leave the clip on the tube until there's enough juice inside to fill your jar then release the clip, fill your hot jar and add lid and band. It doesn't tell you to process them but I always do mine in a BWB for 10 minutes just to be safe. I did some pineapples, sweetened to juice a little and we all loved it. I got a gallon of pineapple juice from 2 pineapples and I plan on canning some of my apple juice too. You can also use it for steaming meat for broth and then use the leftover tender meat for BBQ, soups, etc.
Wow! That sounds really cool. I may have to pick one up. I live in southern Florida and we have lots of trees that give us fruit and it would be nice to be able to can some fresh fruit juice. Thank you for the info!
Deb, here's the one I have. The link in my post wasn't working right so I fixed it.
Steam Juicer
Fried Apples! I'll have to give that a try. Sounds really good. Wonderful ideas. My poor little apple tree has very few if any apples. I think the freezes do it in since it always seems to blossom when it is raining or freezing. Your apple tree is amazing.
I wish apples grew in Hawaii...we do have an abundance shipped in, but nothing like getting them from the tree!
Thank you! I've got a bunch of pomegranate right now that might be perfect for the juicer. They are not the "wonderful" type you see in the stores and are not near as juicy as those so I've been trying to figure out a way to use them more efficiently. I'll let you know how it goes!
I have an apple tree that didn't do anything last year (year I moved here) but exploded this year. I was too darned busy doing other things to get them before they fell, so didn't do anything with them. Could kick myself. They were pretty tart, but would have been good for cooking/baking, I'm sure.
I did toss some to the chickens now and then, so it wasn't a complete waste, I suppose.
Those dried apple slices look divine! Will have to try that.
Hi,
I really liked your article on Apples. Was a nice read and very insightful.
I have a review site for the Apple Peeler Machines and I would like to post a link here as I think people reading your article would find it of interest.
http://applepeelermachine.com/
Thanks.
Jeremy
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