Canning Apple Sauce

FALL APPLE FUN!
Yesterday was a full day! We had about 100 pounds of apples to process.  Where did we get these apples?  In Wisconsin!  We were in Wisconsin for about a week. We visited both Mark’s family and my own family. We first went to my parent’s cabin and got to ride ATVs and go kayaking. That was great fun!

You know how I just love to CAN…Well, our potatoes did not do so well so I asked my husband if we could buy some up in Wisconsin. He bought a sack of 50lbs of potatoes…I said, “Thanks so much but that will only get me started…We need about 3 more!” He was trying to figure out where I could find time to can 200 lbs of potatoes. And they were not that cheap! I think we paid $15 for 50 lbs. In years past, we generally paid about $10.

I, of course, wanted apples and pie pumpkins to can as well. Not to mention carrots. He said, “I have the carrots, get some pie pumpkins, but the apples are steep!” He handed me a $20 bill and said “Get what you can for $20, but I am sure that will not buy you very many apples!!” Well, I really wanted about 100 lbs and I was hoping for a miracle…

I said, “Please lets go to an orchard and SEE what they have.” We got in the truck and headed down to a local Wisconsin orchard. It was what I hoped for, DEER APPLES!!! Those are the apples that do not make the grade and more than likely were sitting on the ground when they picked them. $4 a bushel! Can you believe that?! I was able to get 100lbs of apples for my $20 bill!

The lady who owned the orchard said, “Those apples are too nice to feed to deer!” I said, “I have 5 little deer at home, and I will put them to good use, making apple sauce and apple pie filling!” She gave me a big hug and it warmed her heart that I would take those apples and feed our family with them. What a blessing! God is good! Mark and I were both smiling all the way home.Yesterday, I picked up Owen and Evie and we worked together all day putting up those apples. We filmed it all and I will be posting the video along with more how to photos in a blog post as soon as my internet works. We made apple sauce and apple pie filling. It was a delightful day. 20 quarts of sauce and about 18 quarts of pie filling. It was such fun!

First we washed the apples with vinegar water to get the waxy residue off.  Next was pretty simple.  We cut the apples into quarters.  No need to remove the cores, seeds, or peelings.

After that, we just put all the apples slices into my handy dandy Nesco cooker.  That works fantastic for cooking the apples for apple sauce.

Stir occasionally to keep the apples from sticking to the sides and rotating the soft apples to the top and the more firm apple pieces to the bottom…
Make sure you have cooked them until they are fluffy, which means they are nice and soft which will make them go through a saucing tool no problem.  You can get a saucing tool from the Homestead Store.
​Owen helped turn the sauce through that machine.
Finally, I ladled all the the sauce into quart sized jars up to the neck of each jar.  I wiped off the top of the jar and placed a new canning lid on top followed by a ring adjusted slightly tight but a little loose.
Water Bath can the jars for 20 minutes.  Make sure to cover by about one or two inches above the tops of the jars with water.  Wait until it boils to start the timer.
Watch my new video in my Farmhouse Kitchen making apple sauce…AND I am so excited because I am finally settled into the homestead and we are filming like crazy around here.  So much to share with all of you, I hope you will enjoy the ride!  So stay tuned, things are going to start getting fun around here!

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9 thoughts on “Canning Apple Sauce”

  1. Thank You so much for this video. I will have to try my hand at making applesauce! I am reading your book right now and love it! Love your blog too!

  2. How fun, Erin! Glad I stopped by your site today. I always enjoy your video tutorials. Thanks so much for sharing. Still hoping we can visit when you are available.

  3. thankyou Erin for showing us all how to “bottle” 🙂 apples. Now that it is spring here the apple trees are all flowering and they are so pretty. I use apple sauce in my cakes with a little bi carb soda(Baking soda) and they taste great and are healthy too as there is no need for any butter. Great pick up on the apples what a bargain!xx vicki

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