Apple sauce

I wanted to go the the Rensselaer library's Fall Festival yesterday, but I had a meeting in Monticello. Someone who was there said that it was a lot of fun.

Passing through Monon I noticed Jacob's Professional Services on the south side of town. I am sure I have seen it before but it did not mean anything. Jacob's Professional Services was one of the contractors who were working installing new tanks and pumps at the BP station next to the Washington Street bridge. It struck me as strange that such a specialized company would call a little town like Monon home. But if they are doing work in the entire area, I suppose it does not matter much where they locate. (They had previously worked on tanks for the Family Express station in 2009.)

On my way to and from Monticello I saw many combines in the fields harvesting corn and soybeans. The weather this week seems ideal for farm work. There are still more fields unharvested than harvested.

I have been doing my own harvesting. The local apple trees produced bountifully this year, with so many apples that many had branches break. My old apple tree in the back yard was no exception. Normally it has a reasonable crop of apples every other year, but this year was exceptional--I do not recall a bigger crop of apples from this tree ever.

 It seems a shame to let all those wonderful apples go to waste, so we have been making them into applesauce. The first step is to cut them into pieces.

Then the pieces are cooked until they are soft.

 The next step is to pulverize the cooked pieces with a Foley food mill.
After much grinding, the apples are reduced to sauce. My job is done. Now they need to be seasoned with some cinnamon and sweetened with a bit of sugar.

The final step is to can the apple sauce by putting it in jars and heating the jars to sterilize the contents. With luck they all seal.

This batch yielded eleven quarts. It is a lot of work but we are finished--we have finally filled all our canning jars. (And no, we do not need more jars.)

So now that we have enough apple sauce to last for years, what else can I do with apples?