Saturday, October 30, 2021

Fall Work Day

The girls and I worked all day on the tower of produce in the nook. 

We set up an assembly line. Stacia peeled and cored Granny Smith and Honey Crisp apples. She passed them on to Allie who added monk fruit and spices.
Then we packaged, vacuum sealed, and froze them. Twenty bags of apples rest in the freezer waiting to grace our winter table with pies and crisps.
We put the cores and peels into the juicer and ended up with a gallon of delicious fresh apple juice. 
I plan to use some of the juice to can pears. I need to research how to can the rest of the  juice. 
The girls continued working while I ran out for more spices mid day.  I had hoped to find another apple peeler corer - I was unsuccessful.  Allie got  the dehydrator filled with Fuji apples... they are drying now. Stacia got a load of pears prepped. They are now in the slow cooker.  I am hoping they will magically turn into Vanilla Spiced Pear Butter overnight. 
If they don't we already have a delicious pear sauce. 

How did I end up with a tower of produce in the nook?
I ordered five cases of Fuji apples from co-op to make applesauce for the year. Dad takes his pills in applesauce, we use it in oatmeal and for baking. We ran out last week. Mike suggested a case of Granny Smiths for pies. That makes six cases...we found an extra case of pears at the end of co-op. The easiest way to deal with them was to buy the case. LOL Dad loves pears and had been hinting I could can some. Seven cases of produce stacked in the nook. 

We processed 1/ 1/2 cases of apples and 1/2 a case of pears. We have much more to do...but it is enough for today. 

We are relaxing with Grandpa, sipping hot apple juice while watching,  "Sword in the Stone," and "Inkheart." 

We will work on more apples tomorrow.