apples, apples, everywhere!

The week began with a trip to Milburn Orchards on 9.4.10...

...it was a beautiful day, and we brought home 25 lbs of apples. Having never gone apple picking, I found myself wondering how I had missed out on this fun for the first 35 years of my life! The taste of those Gala apples right off the tree was so crisp and sweet, I think I have been spoiled for life, and grocery-store apples will never be the same to me.  This will surely become a family tradition. 

     This week, then, has been full of wonderful smells and tastes, as we have made 5 batches of oh-so-yummy applesauce. The apples are steamed and then put through a food mill. The applesauce is so sweet that we didn't need to add anything. All natural. All apple. Pure, delicious sweetness.  There has also been a batch of apple crisp (and perhaps one more, tomorrow), and a foray into making apple chips (that one needs work, about half came out crisp sweet and good, the other half either soggy or burnt). 

                         

     So a sweet and wonderful week of all things apple.  The apples are almost gone now, only a few left in the crisper, and I am already pondering whether we might need to pick some more this fall. Because, you know, there is nothing as good as sweet homemade applesauce on a cold winter's day. And I am not sure what we have will last that long...the temptation is great. For now, we savor the late summer goodness.