Saucy Apples

One evening in mid-August we made our daily wander through the back yard through our "orchard" when we discovered that the apples were ripe!  And there were a lot of them.  We gathered the ladder and a few plastic bags and got to work picking, picking, picking before we really thought about what we were doing.  The kids had a blast and we ended up with six grocery bags full to over flowing with (mostly) ripe early summer apples.  What to do now?  A quick call to my mom and arrangements were made for us to meet my dad at his Washington Terrace office the next day to borrow the food mill for easier applesauce making.  What a life saver that was!  We ended up spending most of Thursday, August 16th in apple sauce mode.  But we processed all those apples and ended up with 9 quarts + 14 pints!  Applesauce for everyone!!  (For context, last year I made some applesauce (without the aid of the "cool machine") from a couple of bags of apples from my grandma.  We ended up with 6 pints - and still had four left when I made this year's batch!  Seriously.  Applesauce for everyone!)

And surprise!  We found we have a pear tree.
With pears growing on it!  (Albeit really tiny pears,
BUT STILL!)

The spoils.

The next day . . . the fun begins!

They loved working with "the machine".

First batch goes in.  Cross your fingers!

Just keep cranking . . . 

Quarts this time!

Ta da!  And they all sealed!  What a satisfying thing for a big day
of work.