Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Yesterday I did something that I have never done in my whole life: I picked apples.

I know, not terribly exciting (unless you were there in the shadows watching me squeal and fling apples that had creatures on/in them. James thought that was some of the best entertainment he's seen) but I felt all proud of myself, picking all those organic, free apples! A very lovely and generous lady in the ward has 4 apple trees in her yard and announced a few weeks back that whoever wanted to come pick could have them. I dilly dallied for a while and then decided that I'd give it a try.

Most of the apples were within arms reach and 3 of the trees were granny smith apples. I brought home my load and started dehydrating immediately. (No, not me, I drink plenty of water, thank you. I started dehydrating the apples.) This part was not entertaining, except when I would core one, find something undesireable, and squeal and fling again. James was pleased. I dipped them all in pineapple juice and shook cinammon all over them. The first batches turned out awesome BUT THIS IS TAKING FOREVER!

I got on the phone this morning and borrowed another dehydrator and started doubling it up. Ben is a great thin slicer. Yeah, honey! Then I talked to my mom who is coming tomorrow and she said, "Why don't you go get more apples and we can bottle some stuff?" Oh good heavens. So, being the obedient daughter that I am, Ben and James and I went and picked many more apples, I borrowed a canner, bought some jars and we are ready for the impending parental visit. Wish us luck. And if you smell apple cinnamony goodness in the air, it's coming from our apartment!

4 comments:

DanaLee said...

There is NO such thing as "cinnamony goodness"! I am gonna go barf now. What did those poor apples ever do to you?

Anonymous said...

That sounds yummy! I've never heard of dipping them in pinapple juice and putting cinnamon on them before dehydrating. MMM mmm mmm! I want apple trees in my yard!

Sandy said...

Good for you - you will love home canned applesauce and wondered how you ever lived without it. Another dipper to try for the dehydrated ones (although not as healthy) is jello (I guess you can always use the sugar free kind).

Jocelyn said...

Not sure if you want to invest in one or not, but if you get one of those apple peeler/corer/slicer things it makes it go SO much faster! Maybe you could borrow one. I used to hate making apple pie because it would take forever to slice up all the apples. Once I got one of those gadgets I was able to do all the apples in a fraction of the time.