Applesauce Afternoon

 

September is here and it's apple season. In all honesty our apples were ready weeks ago but we were waiting for more autumn temperatures to get in the kitchen to make a batch of applesauce. I apologize for the photo quality, my kitchen has terrible lighting. I did design this project however for just April and myself so I wanted to capture so images. One-on-one time with April has been a challenge so I love to savor the moment.

Most of our apples were picked a few weeks ago and sent to the juicer. It's what we do every year. It makes our apples last longer (we have organic apple juice from our own yard year round) and nothing is better in the depths of winter than boiling a pot of homemade apple cider. There were still a few left on the tree and some had fallen into our yard from our neighbors neglected tree. We managed to collect a full basket together.

I think the actual operation of the apple peeler was a bit challenging for April. You can't go too slow or the peeler cuts to deeply and if you don't get the apple on quite right, the core breaks and the apple falls off. So mama did the peeling and April put the slices in the pot. She took her job very seriously. We had some fun too though. April stood on a stool near the peeler and tried to catch the juice droplets that were flying into the air with her tongue. After all that peeling and slicing, April indulged in the one leftover apple. She told me "Apples are my favorite. They are soooo tasty."

Only a few more tasks remained for my sweet girl. As we let the applesauce simmer (with a bit of water, a lot of cinnamon and a touch of coconut sugar), April collected all the "apple spaghetti" aka the peels and took them to the chickens. She used the peels to decorate their run. We let the applesauce simmer for at least an hour while we ate dinner. We made sure that April was the official tester. She declared that it was yummy so we knew it was ready. Breakfast the next morning was oatmeal with our special mama/daughter applesauce.