Apples, apples, and more apples!
We are loving having fresh fruit just a few steps away in our own orchard this summer. The early apples got ready this past week, and so we picked them and put them up into applesauce.
To get the apples from the tree and into the boxes with minimal bruising, Lowell came up with this idea. We both got on ladders, picked the apples, and tossed them one by one to the children – who waited with baseball gloves! After catching the apple, they gently set it in the box. It worked beautifully!
For Lowell anyway.
I, on the other hand, am athletically challenged. Poor Derek, who was supposed to be catching mine, ended up with some apples falling on his head!
Little pitcher in training.
Getting started on applesauce day.
Derek had received a nasty wasp sting on his right hand and it swelled (and throbbed) so badly he couldn’t grip a knife. So he was our main apple washer!
The most fun part of applesauce day right here!
And you can tell everyone wants a front-row seat.
One of my sweet baby rockers!
It’s not ALL work! At least not to the creative-minded folks among us. Instead, it’s a challenge to cut the apple the opposite way and see the pretty handiwork God put inside each one!
Um . . . our messy table.
My little apple washer waiting for an empty apple bucket.
By the time we were finished, we had put 19 quarts in the freezer. At which point I had run out of freezer boxes.
SO . . . we canned the rest – 22 quarts. Now we have 41 quarts of yummy applesauce just waiting to be enjoyed this winter!
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Berneice Hostetler says
Our place also came with apple and pear trees. We have since added rasp, strawberries, grape and blueberries! Love having fruit in my back yard all summer long
Living In The Shoe says
When do you pick your pears? We have one pear tree and I’m going to have to find out when to take them off the tree. Do you wait until they start turning yellow?
Berneice Hostetler says
We will probably pick them before long. I am not sure what the exact “rule” is but I know they dont ripen on the tree. I usually pick one and let it lay on the counter for a few days. If it ripens nicely in a few days then we pick em. I think most of ours are Barletts. One of the trees is a winter pear and I dont know much about that one. Nathan Otto used them to make pear juice last year.
Berneice Hostetler says
http://www.starkbros.com/blog/pears-ready-to-harvest/ Here is an article you might like.
Living in the Shoe says
Thanks a bunch!
Abby Brimm says
Are they catching the apples w/ baseball mitts? Fun idea!
Mom G says
Deja vu! Brings back memories of apple pitching & catching here at the old home place. Having your own orchard is really nice-if the fruit is usable 🙂
Living in the Shoe says
Oh, so it was probably you that Lowell got the idea from? 🙂