Lucid Dreamings: April 2012

So, this is the year of 'as-close-as-I-can-get-in-the-city' to self-sufficiency... i hope:) We've built a huge garden (huge for us anyway)with hopes of having all our peas, greens, tomatoes, potatoes, corn ,zucchini, pumpkin and carrots for the winter... and with that, i am learning how to preserve food. My mother is a wonderful canner and oh how I wish I had paid better attention. Luckily, there is wonderful program called 'Seasons of Food' at the community center down the street that offers gardening, preparing and preserving food courses WITH childcare. An incredible program that needs to spread to all communities. I have taken two canning courses: one on pressure canning (still a bit scared.. and by 'a bit' I mean 'a whole lot') and the other on water bath canning. The library shelves under 'canning' are very light because of me these days and the internet is always there for reassurance.

Every Saturday I head out to the farmer's market where I get the majority of our groceries these days. I noticed the beautiful apples we have enjoyed all winter were dwindling and i knew it was time to make a big batch of apple sauce to get us through to the fall when our apple tree (hopefully) gifts us with a bounty of apples. I bought a bushel (40 lbs) of apples from my favorite farmer at the market and off I went. Without knowing it, this was to be a very important learning exercise and the learning curve was steep.. and slightly painful..

I have made apple sauce before, but never correctly and always in the company of friends.. always good fun:) This undertaking had to be done the next day. So Sunday, I set the kids up with arts and crafts, outdoor games and a variety of snacks. Chai made, I was off...

I have never peeled the apples before hand but didn't want to use my sieve so I thought better to peel, core and cook. I discovered my first problem within the first hour of peeling... the further I got into the box, the smaller the apples became. To get a little perspective, my 3 and a half year old modeled with a few of the apples. Please note how many apples he can hold in one hand.

The biggest problem with using small apples is that you basically end up peeling and coring at least half of the apple. DO NOT MAKE APPLESAUCE WITH SMALL APPLES. Wow. i peeled for over 5 hours and destroyed my hands in the process. Seven days on and i still have cracked, stained hands with blisters.. woa is me:)

I cooked the apples in two batches, first batch I peeled and peeled till the pot was full then began cooking. Second batch, I cooked as I cut and this was way more effective and saved time. I was able to get way more apples in the pot and they cooked down faster.

I left a 1/2 inch headspace after stirring and popped them in the water bath for 20 minutes at a rolling boil.

So here they are. 40 pounds of the smallest apples ever created. All cooked down to a measly 7 and a half litres of apple sauce. Of course, my children have since let me know that they prefer the smooth, non lumpy, sieved version of yester-year, but ah well.. I remain proud of my acquired canning knowledge and yummy, lumpy applesauce. cheers and happy canning!