Thought I would share what I have done this year to preserves some of my fruits!!!
My summer apple trees, Anna and Dorsett Golden had produced so many apples this year I had to come up with something other than applesauce (I am already good for the whole year!). I decided to make and freeze apple pie filling and apple leather. Time will tell is the apple pie filling works well for me this year. First time trying that out. Fruit leather is still in the fridge as I am purchasing a dehydrator later today. My oven is too small to handle the load. I will harvest another 6 buckets full off of the Anna apple tree…I am in need of some ideas if ya’ll have any. Do not eat a lot of jams but may make a batch of apple butter for gifts.
You need a peeler/corer/slicer and dry the apples in the back yard on cheesecloth racks. This weather is perfect for it, it takes about three days. Tending the drying fruit used to be the kid’s job.
Looks like you could use an apple scratter/press! The juice and cider is like nothing you can buy from the store…and less labour intensive than drying (ehich i also love)
Beautiful! I can tell you from long experience that you’ll have no trouble with the apples. The blueberries are something I had trouble with, but that was after they had been frozen; they may behave better fresh.
Boil and pour over cooked and peeled beets (we slice ours). I would probably use 3lbs beets? We eyeball it…lol I think what makes everyone love these is the German vinegar we use! Enjoy!
Try their website, maybe they have a retailer by you. A couple of the German stores here will order things if we request. Maybe ask them if you cannot find it.
A few years ago, I did a bunch of research on traditional apple butter and put together a simple recipe from various old accounts and recipes. The stuff is awesome. It concentrates a lot of apples into a small quantity of concentrated food and is completely shelf stable at room temp. It is quite a bit different than what most of us know as apple butter today. Since publishing that I’ve heard from quite a few people about similar fruit butters and spreads from around the world. A similar American product is Cider Jelly, which is the same as Apple stroop in the Netherlands, which are both apple juice cooked down into a spread, also shelf stable and delicious. The cool thing is that if made right, these products don’t require canning or even hot packing. Here is the link to my original blog post. In Pursuit of the Real Oldtime Apple Butter, Shelf Stable, Delicious and All Apples — SkillCult
I just peel the apples, slice them, and freeze them in ziplocks. I then use them to make apple crisp. If the apples are firm and blemish free, you can use one of those crank peelers, but I usually end up just using a hand peeler and knife.
