My daughter and her family live just around the corner from us. We love that! They have six acres, a big old barn, a chicken house with chickens and turkeys and an apple orchard – with 50+ apple trees! It’s apple time and we’re loving it. I helped her peel apples a couple of weeks ago. We talked and watched a film while we peeled and sliced enough apples for ten quarts of canned apples! She makes the most delicious fried apples, just like Cracker Barrel’s. Ten quarts are just a drop in the bucket compared to what they will need this winter, so there’s lots more peeling to do.
Today, I’m peeling apples for us while Doug helps Christy mow their six acres. It’s so cute to see him driving off on his mower to go help, wearing his much loved Tilley hat. They get it done in less time together.
Doug picked one five gallon bucket of apples for me and I will probably need one more to complete 12 pints of homemade apple butter! My goal is to create apple butter that comes close to the wonderful apple butter at the Nashville House in Nashville, Indiana. Unfortunately, I just read that they closed after 91 years! I’ll post some pics of the process and the finished product later. Hopefully, it will be good enough to share!
It may be a few days before we peel and start the process all over again but, right now, we just took the last batch out of the sterilizing water bath. A total of only ELEVEN pints of apple butter but it’s so good! So a gift of homemade canned goods is a gift of time and love! Jar #12 was only about 2/3 full so we’re keeping that out to enjoy now. We chose to make this apple butter just a little chunky and I like it!
