Farm Living: Homemade Applesauce

For my first Farm Living post I wanted to do something that really reminded me of home. What’s better than homemade applesauce?

Growing up, our house was surrounded by apple trees. My grandparent’s 75 acre farm (which my parents now own) was all planted in apples at the time. We had several varieties, including Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and JonaGolds. As kids we loved climbing the trees and the smell of apples still takes me back to those orchards.

 

So, ready to make your own applesauce. It takes a while, but I promise it is super easy.

Step 1: Mom starts out by just slicing up apples. We had some old apples that we bought fresh in the fall and had sitting in our extra refrigerator. Apples can keep for quite a while, but these were getting a little mealy – which was perfect for applesauce. She cut up as many as she had, but you can choose to do more or less. However, they will cook down quite a bit, so it’s probably better to have more instead of less.

Step 2: Once you have sliced them all up, put them into a big pot. Add about 3 cups of water. Note that the apples are not submerged in the water! Turn the heat on low. Allow the apples to simmer for several hours.  You will notice that they start to cook down as the day goes on.

Step 3: When the apples get the consistency of applesauce, they’re all ready! If you like your applesauce with bigger pieces of apple, you’ll want to take it off the heat sooner, and the opposite is true if you like your applesauce with less apple chunks. Once you remove it from the heat, add sugar and cinnamon to taste.

Step 4: Enjoy! Applesauce is so yummy when it’s warm. Be sure to put any remaining applesauce in the fridge.

I’d love to hear how the recipe works for you!!