We arrived at the new place a little later than expected. That put my plans of harvesting and preserving food from the orchard on hold until next year. Since it’s fall, I went to the local farm and scored some local apples. I decided Applebutter needed to happen. 

 
5 pounds of apples gave me 8 cups of prepared and cooked apples that I needed for my dad’s family recipe. I didn’t have a food mill yet but my potato ricer did a fine job. Every part of the apple is cooked down including the peel and the core to get the most pectin and flavor.

 

 
The next step was to add the spices, sugar and cook the whole batch down until it was the proper thickness for the Applebutter. This takes a very long time I may just do it overnight in a crockpot next time leaving the lid a jar for steam to escape. It wasn’t as hard as I thought to remove the peel and seeds from the ricer as I went along. However I can imagine a food mill would be much much faster.

 

 
Since making this batch I have scored a old-fashioned food mill at the local flea market put on by the senior center. I am excited to try the next batch using the food mill and our own apples. 

Side note: The following week I was walking out by the pond and was surprised to find two more apple trees nowhere near the orchard. There were green apples still on the tree, a variety that I don’t have in the orchard. Hoping they are Granny Smith. I would love to have pie apples on the property!