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Most of you know that I love to forage about for food, and that we like to preserve it for future yummy meals. Once in a while...I admit...I forage at the supermarket. It is cheating, I suppose, but what is a girl to do when the Honeycrisp apples are dirt cheap per pound at the end of March? I know I will never be able to forage Honeycrisps as they are such a popular apple and do not grow as well in this area as in others. In addition, we did not get an opportunity to make the family's applesauce stores last fall.
We picked up a few boxes of Honeycrisps, and another box of Pink Lady apples. (Call me picky, but I think the best applesauce has a blend of varieties.) We needed no maple syrup to sweeten this batch, as all these varieties are naturally sweet! The next two Friday nights we cleared space in the kitchen and went to work cooking apples and running them through the food mill/strainer that my mom used when I was a child. I cannot tell you how many memories through the decades I have of making applesauce, tomato sauce, and grape sauce with that Victorio strainer. When it finally falls apart, I think I will have to have a funeral for that ancient piece of equipment.
Dinner? Warm bowls of sauce.
I am the one who manages the water bath canning process, although I have started to initiate the Lovely Assistant into the intricacies of that part of the cycle. Eventually, after the dish cleanup, I shoo everyone to bed, and I make sure that the last few batches of jars in the canner get out on the counter. The floor is usually pretty sticky by that time, so I give it a wipe down. About 1 a.m., I, too, crawl into bed.
We enjoy our applesauce traditions. Do you have similar traditions in your home? I would love to hear about them!