Autumn Means Apples

I live in New England, and apple picking with the kids has been a part of my fall for as long as I can remember. Everyone would get carried away picking, and we’d usually come home with 2 or 3 very large bags of apples….many more than we could consume in a reasonable period of time. Apples should be refrigerated to stay crisp, and all the apples we picked couldn’t fit into our normal-family-sized refrigerator. I soon became adept at “putting up” apple products, so that we could enjoy them all year long.

Apple butter or apple jelly can be processed in a hot water bath after its made, and can be stored at room temperature for up to a year.

Apple crisp is a great dessert, and can be frozen before its baked. The easiest way to do it is to line your baking pan with foil before you make the crisp. Place the baking pan will the crisp in it in the freezer. When its frozen solid, remove the foil wrapped crisp from the pan, and insert into a plastic bag. You use reuse the same pan to freeze several crisps. When you want to bake the crisp, remove it from the freezer, peel off the foil, and pop it in to the baking pan. Increase the cooking time to an hour, and you’re all set.

Apple pies can be prepared and frozen before they are baked…or you can just prepare the apple pie filling and freeze it the same way you did the apple crisp. Just pop the filling into a prepared pie crust when ready to bake, and increase the cooking time by 30 minutes.

Applesauce can either be processed or frozen. My family prefers frozen apple sauce, as they feel it tastes “fresher”, but it will be good either way.

Hopefully you’re inspired to wander out into an orchard this weekend, and gather some apples of your own!