What are you canning now?

[Beekissed]

Me too! I'll have to keep that in mind about the not peeling the pears...I had the same thing in mind with pears that were given to us this year, as they were so overripe that they were nigh impossible to peel. I should have just removed the core and pulsed them in the blender until they were sauce and canned them up.

 

[frontiergirl53]

I feel so accomplished... I went down to Wilcox in Southern Az and went apple picking. So I came home with 5 lb. of pickling cucumbers, I made them into dill pickles last night, and lots of apples were made into my apple butter recipe. I also churned some butter and I still have to preserve the peaches I picked.

 

[thistlebloom]

I feel so accomplished... I went down to Wilcox in Southern Az and went apple picking. So I came home with 5 lb. of pickling cucumbers, I made them into dill pickles last night, and lots of apples were made into my apple butter recipe. I also churned some butter and I still have to preserve the peaches I picked.

Good work! You went apple picking and came home with cukes? I know how that happens. I went to the store for canning lids and came home with 50 pounds of pears.

 

[frontiergirl53]

@thistlebloom That's the story of my life right there...

 

[Beekissed]

This last few days we've been foraging for apples that grow in the wild and on old homeplaces up in the mountains. All types and varieties of apples can be found growing~HUGE trees bigger than any apple tree I've ever seen~ all over one particular county in the mountains of this state and they are pretty much free for the taking unless they are on someone's property...most are not.

Just takes work to get them, often scratchy and pain inducing work as these are in the brush, have a zillion suckers sticking out of the base of the tree that rip your skin and hair, and some have limbs growing low enough to scalp a person....it's an effort to pick up these apples. Sometimes you can shake the tree and then you get zonked on the head as well. Also gotta look where you put your hands as there could be rattle snakes in these areas, as well as hornets and yellowjackets coming to the apples.

I'll try to count how many different varieties of apples we gathered in just the one day of picking up apples when I sort these out. We were pretty much late to the gathering, so we didn't get as many as we had hoped...was hoping to come back with a truck bed level of apples, but barely got a little over 1/3 full. We'll also be trying to gather from 2 trees of my sister's in the coming week to add to this harvest.

Will be making apple sauce and apple butter, as well as canning some for pie filling. The small and damaged apples will go to chickens, dogs and deer. Jake already had a taste of his familiar...the juicy, tangy, sweetly sour and delectable fruit we call "a mountain apple". He was overjoyed! He used to have a whole orchard of these to feast upon each fall and he would eat them constantly and never got tired of it.

Will take pics of the apple processing, as we are doing it in the copper kettle this year...should be a pretty thing and the weather is supposed to be stunning, so we will make a work day out of it and have a weeny roast and bonfire that night.

 

[Nyboy]

I want to try making cider this fall.

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, I know it's going to be a lot of work but it sounds like a lot of fun too! Hoping on a plane to go help you. lol

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

LOVE fresh cider! You can make your own DIY cider press using a car jack if you don't have one on hand....

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-cider/step6/Pressing-using-a-car-jack/

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, I know it's going to be a lot of work but it sounds like a lot of fun too! Hoping on a plane to go help you. lol

Mary

Oh, Mary, if that would only come true!!! We'd have so much fun and you'd gain about 10 lbs! We are making that famous Coney Island hot dog sauce, a blackberry cobbler, homemade lemonade and all the trimmin's and having a bonfire that night under the stars. Should be absolutely wonderful!!!

Nothing taste as good as sauce and butter made from these tangy, incredibly juicy mountain apples....you'll never want to eat store bought sauce again as long as you live.

 

[journey11]

That's a beautiful sight there! A nice mix of apples will make for some really good cider too.

Are you near a lot of state forest land or logging sites you can roam? I have a few places I forage for random things around here, but I've never come upon a good free apple tree yet, nothing bearing fruit of any account anyway.

Do you all battle with fireblight much in your neck of the woods? It's wiping everything out around here the past 3 years. I'm seeing huge old pear trees getting it and obviously they've avoided it for a very long time. It will eventually kill them. The big apple tree on my dad's farm has it now it too. That thing is at least 20 years old. But anyhoo, even what you've got there looks like a good haul to me. What do you think are those big red apples in the back left corner? They're really pretty.