Preserving Apples

It is that time of year, there is a crispness in the air and pumpkins are on the porch.  Yes, it is that time – time for yummy apples!  Apples taste best after the first frost so right around the end of October they are ready for some prime eating.  But, what to do with all the apples on the tree?

We have a nice yellow delicious apple tree in our yard, and this year it was loaded with gorgeous large apples!  With such a bountiful harvest I needed to decide what I wanted to do with them.  I still have quite a few jars of apple pie filling in the pantry, so this year I decided to do canned apples.  I have never done apples like that before, but I figured it was worth a try!

My husband picked the apples on a couple of days ago and I got up ready to start in!  I found all my supplies, more specifically I dug out the apple parer-corer-slicer.  This little gadget was my grandmothers and it still peels, slices and cores like a pro!  I kind of worried about what I would do if this little beauty broke.  But a quick check of Amazon proved I can still get one!

As I worked on the apples, I prepared the syrup – 5 cups water to 3 1/4 cups sugar. Okay, it is a little sweet, but you can use less sugar if you want!  Now I have canned pears, peaches, etc., for years – but I have never had to boil them in the syrup before putting them in the jars.  This was new for me!  The apple slices needed to boil in the syrup for 5 minutes before I put them into the hot jars.  This made for REALLY hot jars!  I then poured more syrup in the jars to within about 1/2 inch of the top.

I processed the apples in a steam canner – you could use a cold pack canner as well.  The processing time is 20 minutes for pints and quarts.  I decided that putting syrup within 1/2 inch of the top of the jar is too much, next time I will go an inch.  They would boil over in the steamer – so everything got real sticky!

After about 8 hours of work, 2 bushel of apples were peeled, sliced, and now residing in glass jars on my counter.  I love canning fresh fruits and vegetables. It is a lot of work, but it is so rewarding and I love seeing the jars all lined up on the shelves of my pantry.  I hope you enjoyed my journey of preserving apples!

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