Canning Applesauce

I felt so domestic today!

A ward member had a bunch of extra apples that she offered to give me. She also offered to bring over her canning supplies and help me can applesauce. So yesterday we got started on cutting, cooking and squeezing applesauce. Then we bottled it.

She had a really neat contraption called a Victorio strainer. So we didn't have to peel or core the apples. We just shoved them in a pot and cooked them whole (well, we cut them in half to make sure they weren't wormy), then we put them in the strainer and turned the handle. Out came the applesauce into one bowl, and out came the seeds, peels and "apple turd" (that's what it reminded me of) into another bowl. Totally cool.

She also had some very ripe pears, so we thought we would try to make sauce out of that, too. I now know why you can't find pearsauce in the grocery store. Once I strained it, it really wasn't sauce but more like a thick, grainy juice. So in the end I added a few cups to two applesauce batches and made apple-pearsauce instead. Yummmmmm. It smelled GOOOOOOOOOD!

In the end we managed to can 16 quart bottles of applesauce and froze 5 quart-size bags of it as well. It took two days (we started at about 8 pm on Friday and stopped at about midnight, then the second round was from 7 am this morning until about 11am). My grandmother would be so proud! But I do need to catch up on some sleep now. I just can't function on the 6 hours of sleep I got. I know, people do it all the time, but I'm a 9-hour person if I can get away with it.

Anyway, I now have enough applesauce to keep us well-fed for quite awhile. Doesn't it just make your mouth water thinking about it?! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!