Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Wolf River Applesauce

 Okay ... tricked you! That tree above is a peach tree, of course, haha! It is a very good fruit year at Max and Anne's farm, and they generously shared with me. I brought a bag of these peaches home with me, I chopped and froze them right away, and hope to make peach preserves soon.
Now, on to Wolf River! I'd never heard of a Wolf River apple. Max's tree was on a pasture slope beyond the main blueberry field. Some cows joined us there.
 The cows love the apples, and we had to protect our buckets from bovine thievery.
Max has a telescoping fruit picking device that allowed us to pick apples from the highest branch.
 

Wolf River apples are HUGE. They're rather dry, with little moisture -- not a juicy eating apple, but an excellent sauce apple. These apples were not sweet, so they needed a good bit of sugar and spices to make the sauce yummy. I put them into a good water/baking soda bath first.
 

I'd planned to make apple butter again, but I didn't want 7 quarts of a sweet topping for toast. This fall, applesauce will be more useful. Besides (as you see above), immediately after putting the cooked apples through the food mill, the sauce was already amazingly thick!  Why cook it down more?
I did put it all into the crock pot to get it hot before canning it. Three other pints are in the frig. These 7 quarts are just the first box of apples. I have another box to go! Gotta go dig out some more quart jars!
Update: six more quarts -- this time just pure apples, no sugar or spices. Adam is using this to make pancakes for dinner tonight.

3 comments:

Lisa Richards said...

Lots of appley and peachy fun! :)

Pom Pom said...

My grandpa grew them in Washington. They make good pie. They were so big that we took them to school for show and tell! Way to go, MK! I bet your pantry is heaving!

Carol Blackburn said...

How wonderful! Looks delicious. As soon as I saw the cows under the apple tree I asked myself, I wonder if cows eat apples? Then, just like that, you answered my question. I had to laugh when you said you had to protect your pickings. LOL Cows are fun, aren't they?
Have a beautiful day.