I love this thing
Yes, still “putting things by” around here. (Before you think I am going all OCD with the lined-up apples I will have you know the child was helping so she wanted the apples. aligned. just. so. Who am I to complain.)
It is funny how clean the kitchen has been lately. When I went down to get the pressure canner from the basement yesterday, the darned thing had DUST on it. Wow: after a month of no use! But the adjustment period was about the same after this short food preservation break in that almost every pot, bowl, dish and scraper gets hauled out to help in the canning effort. It’s just what has to happen, I guess…
Glad you came to visit!
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fast grow the weeds 
You are growing an accountant on your farm. I grew one of those too. It’s still a mystery.
I did the exact same thing with my son on Saturday. He was not so neat in his apple alignment, and really was only sorting for shape and blemish. Those all ended up dried in the dehydrator, but the next batch will be more applesauce and apple butter.
I also have one of those apple peelers which we have dubbed “the amazing device”. I am starting a batch of apple cider vinegar from the scraps per Riana’s recipe.
Whatcha makin’? I’ve been cranking out the applesauce here, not having a food dehydrator. It takes forever to peel, core and slice the apples (10 pounds at a time). Do those peelers really save time? It seems like it would take longer to load and unload, but I don’t know how they work.
I love the lined-up apples. Mine are always in a messy pile. It’s good to have help in the kitchen!
Mmmm, I made applesauce last night with seconds from a farm I drove by yesterday morning. Of course, mine weren’t arranged like little soldiers… 🙂
Pamela, I am trying to teach her the concept of counting by multiples: in the case of the apples, it was 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and you could count them by 5s going either direction. She likes recognizing patterns. She’s okay with 2s and 5s so far. Now considering her mother is no math whiz we’ll see if it goes much further, but hey, accountancy wouldn’t be so bad…
TechS: With applesauce as you know it’s blemish schmemish! These were actually the pretty apples; you should’ve seen the dogs we skinned from the first batch. Yep, I do envy you your dehydrator. These were just sauce…a LOT of sauce (21 quarts). I love Riana’s ideas. She seems like such a kook (in the best tightwaddy way) and I will say I was tempted to try to make apple cider that way too, but the turkeys really like the peels!
Kristi, you see I love that peeler/corer because it DOES save time. You can really get into a groove with it. It does the little knobby wormy apples just fine too, which always surprises me. As you can see in the pic though it doesn’t get every last tiny bit of peel, so I run my sauce through a food mill too. If you like a chunky sauce though just peeling and chopping might be your best bet. But yeah, I don’t have a dehydrator either so I make lots of sauce and butters. I will make and freeze some pie filling too and maybe this week will make some fruity mincemeat. But the child was asking me about making fruit leather again so we might try that too (in the oven, on a parchment-paper covered cookie sheet: you cook it down in a 150* oven overnight, yum).
Don’t apples smell just great when they’re cooking, Laura? There really is something especially home-y and warm about sauce-making day. And fortunately you needn’t make squadrons with the apples to do it!
I’ve never had luck with the peeler models that use the suction device. They always break.
Well, Ed, this is what I do. Notice that lovely linoleum top to my counter. Great sticking material for that suction cup, frankly. I hold the thing down with my left hand while I crank with the right. I agree it kind of sucks. I do have a clamp I use to hold it down (I use it for the pasta maker too) but on this day I forgot it. Still works…but like most things in my life I just need to adjust how I do things 🙂