(no subject)

[stitchwhich]

I learned about "slow cooker applesauce" a few days ago and tried it today. may never go back to commercial applesauce again. I've got one batch that was made with a slight bit of honey, cinnamon, and mace. It was pretty tasty. A little tart for those who are used to sugared applesauce but they can add sweetener to meet their own tastes. I like unsugared applesauce so the batches will be made to my taste since everyone else would only have to add "X". The second batch was made with maple syrup. It took more than I expected before my tasters agreed that they could perceive the syrup. I could taste it the first time around when I'd added about two ounces. Unfortunately it took the rest of the bottle, about six ounces more, before folks were saying it was good. That is while it was still cooking and hot. I don't know how it will come out once it has cooled off.

There were only two downers - the maple applesauce had to boil in the slow cooker for about 8 hours before it had boiled off the excess water from the syrup and the 'starter' quarter cup of water. That surprised me. The second downer is my dominate hand becoming sore from tendonitis before I could finish peeling and paring the apples. I think I had about a bushel purchased and got 3/4 of them done by the time I couldn't ignore the pain. So I have a huge Tupperware bowl, the 'popcorn bowl' filled with lemoned water and apple slices ready for tomorrow. I should get two more batches out of that and the apples waiting for processing. And then I should quit. For now, anyway.

We purchased the apples at our Farmer's Market but it was very obvious that the fruit was not locally-grown. It was for basically the same price as we'd pay in our regular grocery store too, so I had to shuck my hopes that it was not shipped in some preservative manner and had its flavor affected. However, we walked all the stalls and one guy had bruised apples on sale at 79cents a pound so we bought him out. We also bought organic *Frog Jam and **Bear Jam too. I'm going to enjoy tasting those.

*FROG: Fig, Raspberry, Orange, and Ginger
. . . We think it will be excellent as a glaze on roasted pork.

*BEAR: Blackberry, Elderberry, Apricot, and Raspberry
. . . I don't care what it "might go well on". I love all those fruits so it is going to go well on anything I choose to eat. I wonder if it would make a good sandwich with the walnut/cashew butter I have?

Comments

[kareina]

I can't tell from the way you said it. Are you peeling and paring the apples by hand, or using one of these? If you are doing them by hand, you might consider getting one of these toys, I love them. If you are using one, and it still caused your tendonitis to bother you, that really sucks.

[stitchwhich]

Me & a good paring knife. I'm a minimalist when it comes to kitchen equipment. But I likely wouldn't be if I was doing a lot of food prep/saving.

[kareina]

I totally understand the minimalist approach. However, the toy I linked to is so much fun to use I changed my policy from "I will bake you an apple pie only if you peel, core, and slice the apples" to "I love peeling, coring, and slicing apples!"

[medievalbooks]

I am a minimalist myself, tend to turn the tv on while peeling, paring, deseeding etc. When hands ache, take a break for 15 min, then start up again. But mine haven't had the issues that yours have had!

[stitchwhich]

I am considering this as "extra PT".

[medievalbooks]

Yup, me going up and down the stairs ALOT is actually helping my knees a bit. Cheap PT :) Aint it great, the aches and pains of getting older or having body issues lol!

[stitchwhich]

I forgot to say that my Grandmother has one of those tools and us kids used to fight each other to be the one to use it. She got a lot of extra chores out of us on the days leading up to apple processing time!

[tedeisenstein]

A hard-cider company has run several TV ads that emphasize the bushels of ugly (bruised, weirdly shaped, not big enough for sale or too big...) apples with the background spokesman saying "they're not pretty. Heck, some are flat-out ugly - but they taste wonderful after Nature works her magic with fermentation".

[medievalbooks]

When I can applesauce, I always ask for seconds at the local orchard ...at least those days before I had apple trees and in the future cause our new house doesn't have apple trees but do have tons of orchards nearby. They are usually half or less the price of the pretty ones. Sad to say, more and more farmer's markets are "importing" apples - not necessarily from the same state.

[montuos]

I would totally get both frog and bear jam, and never worry whether I had anything more than a spoon to go with them! :9

I hope your hand recovers quickly.

[stitchwhich]

It's better because my husband scowled at me every time I said I was going to get those last 11 apples done. It did look pretty ugly on Sunday but didn't actually hurt. It's forgotten that was the same hand with the broken finger and knuckle last May. I'd also forgotten that I'd damaged my wrist in the same incident. So it hadn't had a workout like that since the breaking. No wonder it ached!