Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Nearly free and organic applesauce

We have an old neglected apple tree in the backyard, and I’ve been making crockpot applesauce this year. A little time with the apple corer, a little water, sugar and cinnamon. Yum yum and only as sweet as you want it to be. So far there are 5 quart jars and 7 pint jars in the freezer, but I have another large batch cooling and lots more apples on the tree.

Imagine zucchini pancakes with homemade applesauce! We had them the other night and the kids went wild!

Crockpot Applesauce

Tools
Fruit picker
Stainless steel apple slicer/corer
Potato masher
Crockpot
Paring knife

Ingredients
4 lbs (or however many as fit into the crockpot) tart apples, cored and cut into eighths
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup water

Directions

  1. Locate apple tree. If you don’t have one, there’s a fair chance your neighbor does, and I bet they would be thrilled if you saved them the effort of raking them up and throwing them away.
  2. Harvest apples. Then convince husband to climb onto garage roof to harvest more.
  3. Use apple corer to slice and core apples. Pick up each piece and examine it critically. Using a paring knife, cut away any suspicious bits. Toss recklessly into crockpot.
  4. Throw cinnamon and sugar into crock pot. If feeling ambitious, stir.
  5. Pour water over apples.
  6. Cook on high for 1 hour and then low for 3 hours.
  7. Mash with potato masher.
  8. Let cool, then refrigerate or freeze.


4 comments:

arlopop said...

that sounds dynamic though just a little too much work for lazy ole me - I just have to find someone who has too damned much of the stuff.

Uh, five quarts sounds like a lot... just saying.

Bluestem said...

5 quarts sounds like a lot? Are you kidding me? I thought you had kids! We eat it on pancakes. We eat it plain. With oatmeal. With, um, stuff.

But yes, if someone handed me several jars, I would take them. It is effort. Don't you live in Fruit Country, though? Doesn't it just rain down on you year-round?

lendos_girl said...

This sound quite a bit like the apples I made for the kids when they were babies (minus the sugar) and I always thought they were pretty good. Though I must admit, I don't think that I could bring myself to mash them all by hand, I put them through the food processor. We have a bit of fruit growing in our yard, mostly citrus though and I just can't bring myself to make "lemonsauce".

Arlopop's wife

Bluestem said...

Oh, when I said "Mash with potato masher" I didn't mean to imply that was a lot of work. The apples are already falling apart. I merely mash for a minute or so. Although I should try the stick blender.

I want a lemon tree. I hear there are indoor varieties. I wonder if they are any good.