What a crazy week this has been! Paul and I took Cassie for lots of apple picking at a nearby orchard that had an over abundance of apples they were more than willing to share! It was a lot of effort, but very rewarding. The sunshine, the fresh air, and the smell of the apple orchards is certainly pleasing to your brain and definitely lowers cortisol levels. Cassie enjoyed her time too, helping pick apples and sample any that we left unguarded for a moment too long. She also enjoyed trying to help us empty the bucket and throw the apples down the hillside as we picked them. She truly thought she was being helpful, we weren’t sure how to tell her we wanted to keep the apples. But on the positive, according to our little smartbell, they were delicious apples.
Cassie also really enjoyed helping pick the apples and put them in the bucket, though they were just a little out of reach for her. So she needed some help from Daddy.
When she wasn’t helping pick the apples, she was making sure that the dirt didn’t feel left out of the fun. Each time we came back from the orchard; Cassie needed a full and complete bath. As much as she likes baths, I have the feeling that she did that on purpose. Somehow, when she’s getting a bath, we all end up getting soaked.
After picking buckets and buckets of apples; it was time to take them home and do something with them! No sense in wasting any portion of a good harvest!.
Paul took to immediately juicing them for his hard cider that he makes. He makes gallons of it and sells it with different flavor profiles as people like it. And of course, it’s always nice to have some on hand for Christmas gifts for friends too!
Of course; I will warn anyone that wants to try juicing gallons and gallons of apple juice: before you try; my husband has decided that outside is the better solution as it tends to go everywhere and make a giant mess. I was too ashamed of the state of my kitchen when he was finished to take a picture, but take my word for it; it required a lot of clean up. But we now have six or seven five gallon containers filled with apple juice and the yeast and flavorings necessary to make hard cider. That took three trips to the orchard to get enough for it!
And of course, we can’t just make cider. With that many apples, I’ve got to pitch in my fair share of effort too! So back to the orchard we went; and came home with even more apples so I could make and can tons of jars of homeade apple butter, and homeade apple chutney.
For those that don’t know; chutney is a fermented food made most often with fruit, and used as a condiment for food. The apple chutney I make is high in probiotics and nutritious goodness that the family loves. Cassie went crazy for her chutney when she tried it for the first time, as it’s flavored with lots of delicious spices such as cinnamon, clove, anise, and other spices. Some chutneys are hot, having originated from India, and have a wonderful kick to them. As I wanted my husband and daughter to eat the chutney, I chose a non spicy recipe. But with a decent amount of cinnamon, (because who can say no to cinnamon soaked apples?) and walnuts. The recipe I use is called Five Spice Apple Chutney, and you can find it in a lot of places. Here’s the place I got it from:
As for making the apple butter, I made a big batch of it in my Instant Pot, and then canned it with the water bath canning method. Very effective, though my pot was so small I had to do smaller batches distributed between my biggest pot and my Instant Pot. So my husband bought me a full canner for next time to make the process easier on me. Believe me when I say that the hosue smelled divine the entire day. Especially when I would release the pressure from the Instant Pot, the whole house would smell like apple spice.
Paul has apparently never had apple butter before, so this was a treat for him. Hot apple butter, freshly made on a homeade roll. He enjoyed it immensely. Cassie enjoyed it to the level where she bypassed the roll and just grabbed the apple butter off of the bread and put it straight in her mouth!
After chutney and apple butter, I made a big batch of hot apple crisp. Perfect for a fall morning, and a great way to start the weekend off! Next I will be dehydrating apples to make homeade apple chips and then making a hot apple pie. But we need to go to the orchard again before I can make those projects. Paul has also suggested I make more apple butter. (Apparenlty 24 cans isn’t enough for him and Cassie.) So I might do more apple butter too. I’m considering putting some up for sale since it isn’t easy to procure apple butter araound here, so maybe some other people will want to buy some. Either way, it’s good to have canned preserves on hand for later. Especially in the rising market.
Well, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but as you can see; things have been very busy. I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and I hope you felt inspired to try new things. I hope you have a wonderful day, and God bless you!