It seems that apple picking, apple butter, apple sauce, and canning are in the air.  In my blog reader alone I had sever people telling of their weekend orchard adventures.  But most eerie was Laura Nelkin talking about making apple butter just as I came back from stirring my own in the crockpot.

Our recipes are a little different, but the idea is the same – taking the fruits of the harvest and preserving them for the year to come.

My family lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York, and before that, we came from Massachusetts, where when I went to school, learning about Johnny Appleseed was part of the preschool, 1st and 2nd grade curriculum (it might have also had something to do with the fact that he was born in Leominster, MA, where I lived when I was young).  Apple picking is nearly a cultural thing in both those parts.  On apple picking days the four of us children would eat a light breakfast (As my mother knew we’d be eating apples in the orchard until we were practically sick) and then go picking.  In a good orchard picking wouldn’t take very long, so then we’d go run in the maize maze, eat cider doughnuts and become awful hellions.  The ride home would be sticky-faced children that had subsided into an exhausted post-applepicking haze.

Those types of memories stay with you, and when I found out Michael had never went apple picking it was clear that had to change.  He had to be educated – seeing as he thought apples were “okay” and he’d really only had red delicious and granny smith (both of which are really not representative of the best of apples).

We now go picking each year.

Last year we went picking and accidentally got just over 100 lbs of apples.  We were processing for DAYS.

This year we were much more reasonable – 50 lbs for canning, 10 lbs for eating.  It’s going to be a fun next few days.

Our Apple Butter Recipe:
To make 8 cups of apple butter:

Core and quarter 48 apples, skins on.
Boil until they can be poked with a fork.
Run through food mill, skins on (if using red apples, it gives the sauce a lovely pink color).  We normally run it through the coarse setting, and then again through the finest setting.
Add desired amount of sugar (approx 2 cps) and apple pie spice (well, actually, Michael has his own mix, but seeing as it’s won prizes at the Montgomery County Fair, he’s not sharing, even with me)
Put in crockpot and cook on high, stirring every 1/2 hour to full hour.  Cook all day, until it’s reduced by 1/2.
Can it in mason jars.

Enjoy all year.