Apples, Apples Everywhere

And quite a few to eat!  I remember as a little girl going to my grandmother's house around this time of year to help out with apple picking.  She only had one tree, but it usually produced a large number of apples.  The only thing I ever remember her making with the apples was applesauce.  Lots and lots of applesauce, usually stored in the dozens upon dozens of empty butter tubs she saved.  Grandma Cook would sit in the kitchen paring, slicing, and cooking while we worked to pick all of those apples under and in the tree.  My dad would use an apple picker of my grandfather's making, which was little more than an old shovel (or other tool's) handle with an old coffee can nailed to the end, while Matt and I worked on the ground and from the few branches we could reach.  

I've done my own fair share of paring, slicing, and cooking over the last two apple seasons.  I'm not quite good enough to peel the entire apple while keeping the skin intact, but I'm determined to get there.  We have two apple trees of our own in the backyard that aren't yet old enough to produce fruit, but when they are, I'll be ready.  I like to call these "real apples."  Apples that look the way they are supposed to.  They're not shiny and gleaming and perfect.  But they taste so much better than those farmed-for-the-store apples.

Noah prefers his apples lined up in a row.

Making some applesauce of my own.

This is about 1/3 of the apples in our house.  We have very generous friends.

Apples sliced to be frozen, bagged, and used in pies later in the year. 

I have several ideas in the works for these apples, and hopefully over the next couple of days I'll have a few more to share with you.  For now, I shall go have a snack.  An apple, of course.