31 Days of Things I've Been Wanting to Do, Day 17: Canning

One of my favorite things to do in my 'spare' time is to preserve memories. I enjoy taking pictures of everything and anything that has to do with my kids. And then I invest time into scrapbooking those pictures onto pages and into beautiful books to keep. 

Since I was already preserving memories, I wanted to try preserving- in the other sense of the word.

I had no idea where to start. I am not the type of learner that can read directions and understand them enough to act out what I just read.

In college, I wrote my class notes in fun, different colors and then high-lighted the important things. On top of carrying my notes everywhere, I slept with those used pages hoping the knowledge would somehow seep in better if I was asleep. 

My boyfriend, at the time (husband now), would only have to listen in class or read his book. Everything seemed to 'stick' in his brain better. 

I am glad God made us different. We have a great relationship because we have differences!

(We do share the same love for homemade applesauce and apple butter!)

I am also glad he has a sister. (Well, 3 to be exact.) But one that I can always count on my cooking/baking/canning questions to be answered. A culinary degree and experience have given her expertise in my book.

She was nice enough to spend an afternoon with me and teach me the art of canning......

(And if you are a visual learner, like me, you are welcome for all of the pictures!)

What You'll Need:

A great applesauce or apple butter recipe (warmed)

Jars for canning (Bands and lids)

Pressure cooker or canning pot (a pot with a disk at the bottom so the jars are not directly touching the bottom of the pan)

Canning utensils

Here's How:

1. Separate your jars and bands for sanitizing.

2. Start your pots of water. One in the pressure cooker (or canning pot) and a smaller one to sanitize the lids separately.

3. When the water is boiling, add your empty glass jars to the water. (She had a special tool to drop and lift the jars into the hot water.)

4. Sterilize the jars in the boiling water for 20 minutes.

Remove, drain and place on a clean towel.

5. Immediately start to fill your hot jars with your apple goodness. (She had a funnel made specifically for canning to fit the jars perfectly.)

Make sure to carefully wipe the rims free from any liquid that may have gotten spilt.

6. Using a measuring tool, measure the 'headspace' (the space between the top of your sauce and the top of the jar). For apple butter or applesauce, you will need at least 1/4 inch at the top. Take out or add more sauce depending on how full your jars are.

7. Using her magnetic tool (this was my favorite gadget she brought!), she removed a lid, one by one, from the small pot and placed them on the jars.

8. Center the lids on the jars and  screw the bands on (not extremely tight).

9. Back in the water bath they go! 20 more minutes....

10. Remove them back to the towel.

11. You will immediately hear a 'pop' or two. And about 20 minutes after you pull your canned apple butter out of the water bath, they will all have 'popped' and be sealed. 

(This is a picture of one that hasn't popped yet. You can tell because the middle of the lid is still up. When they pop, the middle sinks and cannot be pushed down anymore.)

Canning applesauce is the exact same process, just bigger jars. I used 1/2 pint jars for the apple butter (above) and 1 pint jars for the apple sauce (below).

(Do you see 4 lids with black dots on top? Using a sharpie, we marked the ones that came from the same crock pot since I had made two different types of applesauce.

For applesauce/apple butter/canning size/price ratio, here is what I ended up with...

Apple Butter:

14 apples in each crock pot (I did 2 crock pots of this). I ended with 10, 1/2 pint jars of apple butter (If I had more 1/2 pint jars, I would have been able to get 2 more jars filled). The apples were roughly $.46 a piece. So, it cost me $1 .15 for apples for each jar of apple butter. (I did not include the cost of spices and sugar or the jars purchased.)

Applesauce:

15 apples in each crock pot (I used 2 crock pots for this also). I ended up with 8 pint size jars of applesauce. (I kept out about 2 pints worth to eat instead of can.) So, the apples for each jar of applesauce cost $1 .38. (Again, I did not include the cost of apple juice, spices, sugar and jars.)

I got the price per apple from averaging the cost from our apple picking experience.

We bought 47 pounds of apples for $45 .00. We ended up with 98 apples, making the average cost $.46 an apple.

Hope that helps!

These are my canned varieties....

(Left to right)

Sugar Free Applesauce, Chunky Cinnamon Applesauce, Spiced Applesauce, Apple Butter

And wha-la! Applesauce and apple butter done! And my Christmas shopping list just got smaller!

(Don't you wish you were on my list??)

Now, off to find cute labels and ways to decorate the jars!....

31 Days of Things I've Been Wanting to Do, Day 16: Homemade Crockpot Applesauce and Apple Butter

I made my very first crock pot of homemade cinnamon applesauce last fall. Of course, this fall, the recipe I used last year was no where to be found so I had to come up with another one. A combination of what I remember from what I did last year and new spices I decided to try this year. I also decided to take it a step farther and try homemade apple butter too. I don't know a southern girl that doesn't like apple butter on a warm buttery bun!

Homemade Cinnamon Applesauce

What You'll Need:
15 apples (I used 11 Jonathan Apples and 4 Golden Delicious)
1/2 cup apple juice
2 t. cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar

Here's How:
1. Core, peel, slice your apples. ( I have a special guy that does this for me. He's the best at it around here.)
But seriously, if you don't have an apple, corer, slicer, I highly recommend investing in one. It is a time saver!

I was busy getting my crock pot, sugar and spices out and before I knew it, I had 2 huge bowls of apples waiting for me!

(I did halve them after the Peeler, Corer, Slicer Expert was finished.)

2. Place all of your apples in the crock pot.

3. Turn your crock pot on low.

Pour your juice over and add the cinnamon and brown sugar.

4. Stir it and put your lid on the crock pot.

(It may be difficult to stir at first but once the apples cook down, you can stir it well.)

5. I cooked this pot of apples for 7 hours on low.

It turned out to be my delicious, 'chunky' pot of cinnamon applesauce.

Homemade Spiced Applesauce

What You'll Need:

15 apples (I used Jonathan apples for this pot)

1/2 cup apple juice

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

1 cup brown sugar

Here's How:

1. Get your Peeler-Corer-Slicer-Man back into the kitchen to get your apples ready.

Place your prepared apples in a crock pot.

2. Pour the apple juice over the apples and add spices and brown sugar.

Stir and add lid.

3. Cook on low for 5 1/2 hours.

I think this pot of applesauce took less time because I used only one type of apple.

4. When the apples are tender, whisk to the consistency you like. This is my pot of delicious, 'thinner' applesauce.

Homemade Apple Butter

What You'll Need:

14 apples (I used 7 Jonathan and 7 Golden Delicious)

2/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. allspice

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. ground cloves

1/2 t. pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

2 cups of sugar

Here's How:

1. With a smile, yell, "Honey, I need just 14 more apples!!"

Have him get more apples peeled, cored, and sliced to perfection for you!

Put those in a crock pot.

Top with vinegar, vanilla and spices....

2. Then the sugar.....

3. Stir. And if it wasn't for the lingering smell of apple cider vinegar, I would have totally taken a bite at this point!

4. Lid on and turn your crock pot on low. I started mine at 9:30 pm. If you can stand to stay in bed until 8 am, that is when you take the lid off and whisk it well. (It'll be tempting to get up earlier because the aroma in your house is amazing!) 

5. Then at 2 pm, the consistency was how I wanted it and I couldn't wait any longer to taste!!!

So to recap, 10-11 hours on low with the lid on and an additional 6 hours on low with the lid off.

So what does a girl do with 3 crock pots of applesauce and 2 crock pots of apple butter???

Other than try them all multiple times to determine she loves them all....

CANNING of course! That's tomorrow.......

31 Days of Things I've Been Wanting to Do, Day 9: Apple of My Eye

We have been having exceptional weather for this time of year, and considering where we live, we knew we had to take advantage of it before it's gone! Something I've Been Wanting to Do..... Apple Picking!!!! 

I had the perfect plan.... complete with visual images of my children laughing in the sun and skipping among apple trees. We were all excited about trying something brand new to all of us.

We visited Garwood Orchard. To tell you the truth, I was kind of expecting to knock on the owners' door to tell them we were here to pick apples. Then I was thinking he'd lead us to his back yard and we would have 50 or so trees to walk among and pick what we wanted. I even made sure to take cash because I was sure they wouldn't have the capabilites to run my debit card. Boy was I wrong!

When we got there and parked, we walked through a line to pick up bags for the kids' apples and then we were lead to another line of people awaiting to be taken to the orchards. As we were standing in line, we made comments about just how big this place was! A horse drawn wagon pulled up to load us in and off we went! What a fun way to start! Graham didn't take his eyes off the horses.....

After a short ride, we were let off in what seemed to be a sea of apple trees. That's all we could see.....

We got right to picking! Joel taught the kids what to look for (no brown spots, only pick ones on the trees, round ones, etc.)....

My favorite 'picker girl'.....

Graham's bag got heavy fast. We had to sort the rotten ones from the ground out of his bag. Then he figured out kicking was better than picking anyway! :)

Distracted by a train going by....

I think it would be impossible to walk through an orchard and not think of Adam and Eve so long ago.

 

And on the way back, a tractor wagon ride....

We even stopped in their produce store before heading home. Sipping cherry apple cider, we watched as they sorted and bagged apples off the conveyor. We picked up some pumpkin donuts, old fashioned root beer and candy for the kids.

Our picks of the day...

On top of my kids laughing and running through apple trees, there was tons of picking, a little sweating, a small meltdown, lots of snacking and eventually napping. All in all a great day! (Stay tuned for apple recipes. I've got 47 pounds of them!)