Harvest Time #8: End of Season Apple Sauce

Does indeed sound like a productive and rather pleasing weekend thus far. All that applesauce sure sounds good … and not to mention that grilled ham.

Enjoy your day today (Sunday). Here, weather-wise, they say we may be pushing 80 degrees!!! WOOHOO!!! May be our last really wam weekend, but one never knows with Michigan weather.

Sooooooo, have fun!!!! Nice to be chatting again … GT just ain’t the same without ya! :-)

-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b

busy busy busy and very productive!!

I’m a little jealous of all those apples!! :)

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

It all sounds so yummy Scott.Apple pies and sauce for winter.Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Busy time, indeed. I don’t envy you the task of climbing the apple tree with the many bees circulating at this time of year, and they really are short tempered too. (I am anaphylactic to bee stings, so I am overly cautious this time of year.) Mind you, I do enjoy the apple pies and the apple sauce that I can make with their produce. :)

You’ll really enjoy it when the roof is over the back porch and it is screened in. You’ll be doing a lot of BBQing in the winter then, for sure.

-- jroot

Gram, if it wasn’t so blasted busy with work and home I’d be hanging out more and chatting away. Besides, not much going on now besides fixing things around the house.

Debbie, Just wait till I start making apple juice and hard cider… errr… well at least apple juice.. ;)

Going to pick up some 4×4s and a few other pieces of lumber and make a press and apple grinder. Maybe next year, if not the year after for sure.

J, bees are not much of an issue. They’re way too busy getting drunk off the compost pile. It’s a nice mix of apple refuse and persimmon mash, which, is fermenting nicely and smells quite rich.. Every now and then I stop to pet a drunken bee when I go to dump more goods on the pile.

Not real sure what’s eating away at the pile.. If you move some stuff, you’ll find hundreds of what resembles meal worms crawling all over it munching away. Not a clue what larva they are.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

I totally understand Scott … just letting ya know you are missed when not around. ;-)

Enjoy all that apple goodness!!!! YUM!!!!

-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b

well I hope you share your plans for the apple press!
I purchased a juicer for the apples last year. Worked great but it burned out the motor so I had to get a replacement and now I have to slow down the process. A wooden press would make life much easier.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Debbie, here’s a plan for a grinder.

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/press/apple_grinder.html

This page shows something like what I’ll be making, a knock down press which can be taken apart.

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/press/making_cider.html

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

Those are fascinating links, Scott. They remind me of the good old days, when I used to crush my own grapes, first with a scrubber of sorts, and then the press outside. Then the juice would flow through a funnel and pipe into the wine cellar below into the primary fermenter. etc. etc.

The bees were abundant, and other local animals came around as well. We actually adapted a stray dog one year, as we could see the animal was starving, and kept trying to eat the grapes before we could press them. He was a neat dog.

-- jroot

wow.. ok.. so maybe I won’t be making one!! lol Looks effective, though.
this is looking so much easier.. if it wasn’t for that price tag.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

That’s a pretty cool press Scott.I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing one before let alone watching someone use it. Thank you I enjoyed seeing how it’s done.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Debbie, tisk tisk… Surely a lumber jock can toss together a cider press from scrap wood…

As for the grinder.. shhhh… I’d seen someone make one out of a garbage disposal before. Brand new, mind you and flushed with a healthy load of scrap apples to remove any oil/debris…

Either way.. The press itself is really, really easy… Go with one that uses the trays, as apposed to the one pictured which uses a bucket like thing to hold the apples. Get more juice out of it with flats.

Ye’ Olde Way

Here’s one for you Deb. Nothing fancy.

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NqBuvg7cQ0

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02SyMWipXRU

Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJwew3N3lzw

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

All I can say is “WOW”. I am amazed at the amount of work and envy you and your parents for the natural product you then have. Just “WOW”

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

LOL… Those aren’t my videos, Iris.. Just examples of how to make apple juice and cider. But, I sure to envy the people in the first video for sure. It’s quite the setup they have.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

I have to say, Scott, that the videos are amazing, and I did think they were yours. But the pictures you have of the process that you used are also aweinspiring and I’m still envious of the juice, pies and applesauce you have processed for the winter.
Years ago, when I was bringing up my family, I did bushels of fruit and vegetables for the winter. (wish I had pictures of it) I loved the rows and rows of preserves lining my root cellar shelves. The colours were beautiful and we never had to worry about what the weather might throw at us. But my family has all grown and I am alone now, so I don’t do much anymore. Some tomatoes and a small amount of fruit if it comes my way.
I have enjoyed reading all your interesting journals of growing and processing your produce for the winter.

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

ok. now THAT I think I could do! (ok, “we” could do, right Rick?) :)

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)