Yesterday was canning day. I was offered free apples if I wanted to pick them, and I didn't hesitate. After returning home with 10 bags full of apples I knew I needed to have a plan. I called my friend to see if she wanted to help can and share in the spoils. There ended up being three of us and we still didn't get to all the apples. We worked tirelessly for 6 hours though, and will have applesauce to last us the winter! I hope to make apple butter tomorrow with the rest of them.
First we peeled and quartered the apples (taking out the cores).
The large pot covered both the burners on that side and we had the burners going on full blast for almost 5 hours. The smaller pot is applesauce in the works. It really isn't too hard. You add water, sugar and spices and let boil for 20 minutes.
You want the jars to be hot when you fill them up with the goods, so Reilly and I loaded the dishwasher.
I don't have pictures of this but you fill your jars with the food, screw them on as tightly as you can and then boil them to get the jars to seal.
After we were done with the apples we moved onto peaches and made peach jam. It is SO good. I had some for breakfast.
I ended up with a third of the jars and that included 9 jars of peach jam, 4 jars of apple pie filling and 6 jars of applesauce.
