GOD SAVE ME FROM THE APPLES!

171 pounds of apples. One hundred and seventy one pounds. That's the size of a nine month pregnant woman! How's that for a mental picture of how many apples we have? :)

In our family we don't go apple picking so much as apple collecting. To go apple picking it costs $22 per bushel, but when apple collecting it only costs $6 per bushel. They are called "drops" and that's exactly what they are, apples that have dropped off the trees. Some of them are half eaten or rotting, but most of them are perfectly good apples. We only collect the perfectly good apples and I dare say one would be hard pressed to tell that we were collecting rather than picking based on the appearance of our loot.

We collected 4 bushels. We were only going to get one, maybe two, but I have that complex that sent me back into the orchard twice for more! Of course I plan to share so I needed more and more apples!

Here is the super simple recipe that I use to make the most beautiful and delicious applesauce:

First I fill the sink with cool water and a tiny bit of bleach, because the apples were on the ground. Then I rinse them off, cut them in half, and toss them into the biggest pot I can find. A half inch or so of water goes into the pot and I set it on high. Soon all the apples are soft, and I remove them from the heat.

I get out another huge pot and put my food mill on top of that. Soft apples are scooped into the mill, given a few turns, (sugar and cinnamon added to taste) and voila, homemade applesauce with minimal effort.

The great thing about making it the lazy way is that the sauce gets a nice pink hue from the skins. This works for me. Head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more great ideas!

When you have 171 pounds of apples, the next step is to can them, but for normal people (read: not me!) you could put your applesauce in the fridge, or freeze it as well.