It’s probably A Girl, Applesauce, Dried Apples, Iroquois White Flour, Homestead Orchard & Canning.

The week has been a busy one.  On Wednesday we had our 20 week ultrasound just to check and make sure, once more, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the kid we are growing.  All absolutely normal, and to all appearances, female.  Again.  <grin>  Back in college I prayed to be surrounded by women.  Looks like my wish came true.

My back was unhappy with me this week after an evening of hard playing with the kids on Monday at Minnetonka Regional Park, so we did not do the apples until this morning.  Last night I started getting the kitchen ready, and packed the slow cooker with venison, garlic and onions so we would have food throughout the next day without having to cook anything else.

This morning we finished prepping for the apples, and then we plowed through all of them.  The kids rotated through slicing apples with me, while Patti made batches of apple sauce.  The dehydrator was filled with sliced apples, and the huge turkey roaster is now in the oven filled with apple sauce that will reduce further in there.  The recipe is simple.  In a large heavy bottomed saucepan Patti puts a small amount of water and then packs it with sliced apples, and covers it.  Once it has started to bubble, she opens it up, adds a small amount of cinnamon, sugar and vanilla extract, then crushes the sliced apples with a wooden spoon.  When the apples have softened she adds that pot full to the turkey roaster in the oven, heated to 250 degrees, and stars another batch on top of the stove.

In this way, by the end of the day, the apple sauce is all ready to go into quart canning jars and there is no worry about scorching or burning any on the stove (learned the hard way) and all of the canning can be done at once in the cool of the evening and nice instead of heating up the house while the sun is warming it anyway.

When the apples were done I hauled out all of my Iroquois White Flour corn and sorted through the best ears,  choosing only the best 20 ears.  These I broke the tips and butts off of, and then carefully shelled the center 2/3 of the cobs into a large mixing bowl.  These ears to select from had already been partially segregated.  When I was harvesting them a couple of weeks ago, only those ears on plants that did not lodge at all,  set fairly high on the plants, and had developed kernels completely from end to end, I had left the husks attached and peeled back to differentiate from other cobs which though looked fine, I had decided to just keep for food for other reasons.

Notice above, the honeybee that landed on the seeds.  This is an incredibly sweet flour corn, and that bee was damn sure that there had to be nectar somewhere in there.

Then it was time to head out to Homestead Orchard again.  Our neighbors Cobin & Ann, their daughter Linnea, and Eric along with his father and son Owen, all came out for a few hours.  Was fun with all of the kids running all over the place, taste-testing apples, and playing.  Once again, their website is http://www.minnesotahomesteadorchard.com/index.html and no, I don’t get paid to promote them.Linnea disappeared for a little bit, then was found about 5 feet up in a tree, with a big smile.  Of course she smiled for the photos but was glad when her dad lifted her down.

There is something really wonderful that has happened at the orchard since the last time we were there.  <smile> The Fireside apples are ripening.  I tasted one.  Then I ate the whole thing.  Then I ate a second.  I do swear to God that Firesides are the finest eating apple on the face of this planet and I am going to stick to that until I am proven otherwise.  The orchard has a lot of Honeycrisp apples, and I will admit that is a wonderful apple, but if given a choice between the two, I will take the Firesides.  You have to hunt and pick to find the ripe ones right now, but by next weekend they should all be ripe, and perfect, and wonderful. <happy sigh>

Patti stayed home, to have a quiet house to herself, but she kept herself busy, and canned the morning’s apple sauce up.  We will be back at it again tonight with the apples I just picked up.So now the sun is starting to go down.  The kids are stuffed with apples and apple sauce.  Patti and I need to get back to peeling and cooking down apples.  At some point the kids will need to be tossed into the tub and tucked into bed, but for now, here at the end of a beautiful day, I am going to let them just play outside with their friends.

This entry was posted in Corn, Food, Gardening, Harvest, Photos, Processing, Seeds, Storing. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to It’s probably A Girl, Applesauce, Dried Apples, Iroquois White Flour, Homestead Orchard & Canning.

  1. Taras says:

    Hi Tom, thanks for showing that trick with the roaster in the oven. I live alone and do most of my canning by myself. So reducing in the oven will save all those sacrificies to the canning gods when I forget about the reducing pot on the stove trying to do everything that needs to be done by myself. Congrats on the new addition to your family. I see that you too have learned to be careful what you wish for. It seems that God does have a sense of humor :). Taras

    • Tom says:

      it is a bugger to realize you have carbonized a bunch of apple sauce to the bottom of your pan on the stove. This, Patti found, works much better. Saves on SOS pads too.

  2. nice. check my blog too.

    • Madison says:

      Dear Jan, WHAT FUN!!! I feel like I was there with you guys. Henry hanging from the tree and waklnig with the bag of apples like a farm boy. Well, love them all! The one of Ruth eating the apple or trying is priceless. The girl knows what she likes? I have been eating the heck out of apples too and going to the orchard to get carmel apples with nuts. Fall is my favorite time of year for sure and I am soaking it up. Love you all!!! Kathy

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