Shades of George Shirley! My elderly neighbor asked me if I would like
to pick apples from her young tree, planted by a previous owner. She
had picked her fill and was not interested in the rest. The apples are
beautiful looking, bright red with some faint green stripes. I think,
from the flavor, they are Galas. I picked both drops and low-hanging fruit.

Problem? They are a bit wormy and nearly every one has a bite taken out
of it by our ravenous squirrels.

I washed them well, kept the better ones, and cored and cut out the bad
spots and simmered on "Low" in my crockpot for 4-5 hours. I was
surprised to see they hadn't broken down at all. I let them go
overnight and still had to mash them a bit before putting through the
food mill. By that time they had become dark reddish-brown, caramelized
and delicious. What had been ~20 cups of chopped apples cooked down to
about 1 1/2 cups of sauce. They are definitely an eating apple, not a
cooking one. I hope I remember next year.

gloria p

On Thursday, October 23, 2014 6:04:36 PM UTC+1, gloria p wrote:

> Shades of George Shirley! My elderly neighbor asked me if I would like
> to pick apples from her young tree, planted by a previous owner. She

> I washed them well, kept the better ones, and cored and cut out the bad
> spots and simmered on "Low" in my crockpot for 4-5 hours. I was

> and delicious. What had been ~20 cups of chopped apples cooked down to
> about 1 1/2 cups of sauce. They are definitely an eating apple, not a

Interesting. I get a cup of sauce from about 2 whole apples. I dont cook them for long.


NT

On 10/23/2014 12:04 PM, gloria p wrote:
>
> Shades of George Shirley! My elderly neighbor asked me if I would like
> to pick apples from her young tree, planted by a previous owner. She
> had picked her fill and was not interested in the rest. The apples are
> beautiful looking, bright red with some faint green stripes. I think,
> from the flavor, they are Galas. I picked both drops and low-hanging
> fruit.
>
> Problem? They are a bit wormy and nearly every one has a bite taken out
> of it by our ravenous squirrels.
>
> I washed them well, kept the better ones, and cored and cut out the bad
> spots and simmered on "Low" in my crockpot for 4-5 hours. I was
> surprised to see they hadn't broken down at all. I let them go
> overnight and still had to mash them a bit before putting through the
> food mill. By that time they had become dark reddish-brown, caramelized
> and delicious. What had been ~20 cups of chopped apples cooked down to
> about 1 1/2 cups of sauce. They are definitely an eating apple, not a
> cooking one. I hope I remember next year.
>
> gloria p
I just wish I had neighbors with fruit trees Gloria, I miss those folks.
I use a cheap stainless steel steamer, made like the expensive
Mehu-Liisa but much cheaper. Wash the fruit, chop into small pieces,
fill the bottom of the juicer with water and get it boiling, put chopped
fruit in, put the lid on and wait for it to start juicing. The beauty of
it is that I get the juice plus I use the steamed fruit to make pear or
apple sauce by putting the fruit pieces through the food strainer. My
strainer is a Back to Basics, have had it for years now. Made some
adjustments for the shoddy handle nut by replacing the pewter one with a
stainless steel nut.

Get two different products out of one fruit. Drat! Now I need to hunt
for a place to pick peaches, pears, and anything else I can find. May
just put an ad in the local papers.

Starting to look like winter here, temps in the mid-fifties this
morning. Beats the sweltering heat of August.

George

might make a lot of sense to grind them up
before cooking next year.

we did about 30 bushels of apples last
year from an organic grower that were drops
and some from the trees. yes, it was some
work to cut around the worst of the damage,
but we ended up with so many gallons of
apple sauce for the food pantry place that
it was worth it, along with what we put up
for ourselves.

my mouth is watering from your description.



songbird