Pooped Out

Dennis and I have been making applesauce today and I’m pooped out. I’m not a spring chicken any more and rheumatoid arthritis has disabled me in many ways, but I can’t resist making applesauce from Lodi apples. Lodi apples produce a crop only every other year and two years ago the blossoms all froze, so we haven’t replenished our applesauce supply since 2010. Usually the apples are ready when Nancy and Cleo are here to participate, but this year the apples are late maturing and our helpers went home last week

Today Dennis did most of the work. Our wonderful old Squeezo strainer makes the job bearable. It separates the apple peels from the pulp, spitting the peels out and straining the sauce. In this photo we have already removed the big hopper that holds the cooked apples.

Today we made three or four gallons of applesauce, cooking cored apples in big pots with a little water to keep them from sticking. Then the Squeezo took over with Dennis turning the crank handle. My job was to add the right amount of cinnamon and sugar.  Lodi apples are very sour, but I used only four cups of sugar for all the applesauce we made, but almost 4 tablespoons of cinnamon.

We used all of our large containers – all recycled from  cottage cheese, yogurt, sour cream, and other containers from grocery store purchases – eighteen in all. You can see the Squeezo hopper in the background.

To be honest, I’m glad we won’t make applesauce again until 2016. At the moment I can’t think about the green beans waiting to be preserved for winter or the crabapple jelly waiting to be made. I just want to sink into my new recliner, read a book, and forget about food preservation.

Copyright 2014 by Shirley Domer