It’s fall here in Southern Indiana, and that means it’s apple time! Last Friday my wife and I went to Joe’s Orchard and picked some Fuji, Mutsu and Golden Delicious apples. Even though apples are available year round, I’m no fan of supermarket apples that have been sitting in storage for months then shipped all over the country. There’s nothing like a fresh picked apple for my tastes. And just when we got the kitchen counter cleared of tomatoes and other summer veggies, now it’s covered in apples!
apples, apples, apples (click on any image to enlarge)
Since we picked the apples, my wife has been making Waldorf Salad and Apple Crisps, and today I’m making a batch of applesauce. I’ll freeze some of the applesauce for use later. We use some in baking, and some we’ll just eat as is after thawing. I love eating applesauce for a snack, maybe sprinkled with a little cinnamon and some homemade granola (click here for my wife’s favorite granola recipe).
chopped apples for sauce
I’m using my own basic applesauce recipe, using cored, peeled and chopped apples with a little sugar and a stick of cinnamon (click here for the recipe). It yields about 2-1/2 cups of sauce, and can easily be doubled or tripled. Today’s batch is more like a double batch, and should give us plenty of applesauce for eating fresh in the next few days as well as some for freezing.
apples cooking down for sauce
We do our best to support our local growers when it comes to buying things we don’t grow ourselves. Next week we’ll probably make a trip across the river to Reid’s Orchard in Owensboro, Kentucky and pick up a few more apples. We’ll also be drying some, making apple leather, and generally eating them like crazy while they’re in season here.
Making apple leather starts out a lot like making applesauce, except we usually leave the skin on. After cooking the apples, we blend them until smooth then the mix goes on dehydrator sheets to dry into leather. My wife did a nice tutorial on making fruit leathers (click here for the tutorial). She is the Queen of the Dehydrator around here!
finished applesauce
Homemade applesauce is easy to make and oh so tasty. If you’ve never made applesauce, now is a great time to try it while apples are in season!