Ms. Donna has a wonderful garden full of various fruit trees laden with more apples than she wants. This year, she graciously offered to allow us to “drop by anytime” and “take all the apples you can carry!” The boys and I took her up on that offer — although we turned down the offer of “extra boxes in the garage!” and hauled away three trader joe’s bags full of apples. What kind? Donna’s not totally sure, they’re “some old variety, not red delicious, they’re good for cooking with.”
We are two bags into the process of coring, slicing and doing something with them.
The corer-slicer was worth every last penny. I don’t think I could manage to core and slice so many apples otherwise.
We made crock-pot apple butter, and apple sauce in the dutch oven. The apple sauce turned out pink, and is very tasty! The boys had seconds (and thirds). I’ve canned several pints of sauce, and several half-pints of apple butter.
We’ve got one bag full of apples left, so I’m going to make a batch or two of muffins/quick breads, and then turn the rest into either apple butter or apple sauce, or the kids will partially eat them and leave them around the house. Helpful small children.
If you freeze apples in slices, they make great pie in the winter. Sounds like you could go back for more 😉