Apple Goodness

The apples are earlier this year than in years past, so we began picking in early September.


We have seven different varieties of apples on the farm. One of them is the old fashioned gravenstein apple. They make delicious applesauce, pie, crisp, etc.


You can't go wrong with the old time flavor of a Gravenstein. We also have Crispins or Mutsu, Golden Delicious, Gala, Granny Smith, Fuji, and Jonathan apples.


With the late frost snapping many of the blossoms, and our water shortage this summer we feel especially lucky to get as many apples as we did.

Some were much smaller than they might have been with a steady, adequate water supply, but they sure have a great flavor.


There are plenty of tasty apples for sauce, fresh eating, pie, and apple crisp. It takes about two hours for a large batch of applesauce to cook down. We don't add too much to the apples other than a splash of water in the bottom of the pot to keep them from scorching.


This batch does have a sprinkling of cinnamon and some freshly grated nutmeg. The spices seem to strengthen in flavor after the applesauce is canned, so less is more for our taste buds.


Now there will be plenty of sauce for our homegrown pork!