GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: applesauce

  • How to Can – Canning Tomatoes, Fruit, Vegetables : GF Video

    How to Can – Canning Tomatoes, Fruit, Vegetables : GF Video

    How to can video! Learn how to can food: apples, peaches, can tomatoes, vegetables. Canning food is easy using the waterbath method. Use a big pot you already have as a canning pot and buy a funnel and a  grabber tool and you are good to go.

    Home Canning How To

    This waterbath method is for high-acid food like fruits, tomatoes, pickles. You should use pressure cooker canning for low acid foods like meat and fish. You can buy a canning pot to boil the jars, but we use a big metal stockpot, the same one we use for brewing beer and cooking pasta. When using a stockpot for canning, place a towel in the bottom of the stockpot to keep the jars from touching the metal bottom of the pot. A GF viewer suggested tying together some jar bands with twist ties to form a base for the jars to rest on in the pot.

    Some things to keep in mind when canning food:

    • Be sure to wash the jars, lids, and bands with hot soapy water
    • Do not allow any food to get on the rim of the jar or on the rubber area of the sealing ring. Wipe off any mistakes
    • Allow the jars to cool for 12 hours and test the lids for seal. Some jars lids may still make the pop sound when they are taken out of the waterbath.
    • Buy a canning funnel and tongs, they are worth it. Less spilled food and no burned hands!
    how-to-can-canning-tomatoes-fruit-vegetables-4
    Canning Funnel keeps the rim of the jar clean and sits nicely on top of the jar. Canning Tongs save your hands!

    We based our information on one of the experts at Ball Jar Company, they have a great PDF on canning.

    pickle-rhubarb-play

    Watch our other canning videos here!

    What are your canning tips? Let us know below:

  • Found: The Antique Roxubry Russet Apple

    Found: The Antique Roxubry Russet Apple

    All our apple trees are done for the year. No more fruit to pick or pick up from the ground.

    But I was by my neighbor’s house this weekend, and I saw he had one tree that was full of apples, and its the middle of November. I called him and asked if we could take some apples to make sauce. “Knock yourself out” was his answer. click here to watch our How to Make Applesauce video

    In less than 30 minutes, I had 3 bushels of apples in my cart. There were a ton of apples on the ground, and most had little insect or fungal damage. Not bad for a tree that is not sprayed.

    I started making sauce, and wanted to find out the name of this hardy apple. I took a ride down to see Priscilla, my neighbor who is a true homesteader: chickens, horses, guinea hens, steam engines and a cider press. She knew what is was immediately. Its a Roxbury Russet, a very old apple from Roxbury, Mass. The Roxbury Russet has good disease resistance, and ripens late in the year. Priscilla says the best tasting apples ripen last.

    I thought it cool that we had an antique apple tree nearby, and that we even knew what kind of apple it is. Next year I’m bringing Priscilla samples from our other apple trees to see if she can identify those apples.

  • How to Make Applesauce Recipe : GardenFork.TV

    How to Make Applesauce Recipe : GardenFork.TV

    Learn How to Make Applesauce as fall starts and apples ripen. We get apples from our local pick your own orchard or from our neighbors who have a very nice apple orchard. After you’ve made applesauce, you can can it, watch our hot water bath canning video.

    How to make applesauce the GardenFork way

    Making applesauce is not rocket science. It does take some attention, making sure you don’t burn the bottom of the pan, but is easy to do. This is something you can do with your children, get them involved in cooking.

    How to make applesauce

    Your first choice is are you a skin on or off kind of person. I leave the skins on when cooking down apples to make applesauce. The skins add the red-pink color to the sauce and also thickens it a bit more. I think there’s also a nutritional benefit to the fruit skins.

    Next up is do you want to remove the seeds and core before or after cooking down the apples. You can core the apples before adding them into the pot, or just put whole apples in to the pot and deal with the cores later. You can also just quarter the apples and remove the seeds later.

    If you are leaving the skins on, you’ll need a food mill. These are great tools to have around anyway for other projects. You can use it to make tomato sauce and de-seed other fruit pulp.

    Also important when making applesauce is a pot with a thick bottom so the sauce does not scorch, or you can use a heat diffuser. The key here is to cook down the apples, but not burn them, low and slow works well.

    So there you go, some pointers on how to make applesauce, below is the recipe.

     

     

    How to Make Applesauce Recipe : GardenFork.TV
    Recipe Type: Dessert
    Cuisine: American
    Author: Eric Rochow
    Prep time:
    Cook time:
    Total time:
    Serves: 32 ounces
    This recipe makes it easy to make your own applesauce.
    Ingredients
    • 3 lbs ripe apples
    • 1/2 cup water
    • 1 tablespon Cinnamon
    Instructions
    1. Core and cut the apples into quarters.
    2. Add cored – cut apples and water to the pot, put pot on high heat.
    3. When the water and apples start to sizzle, turn down the heat to low, cover, and let the apples cook down.
    4. Add the cinnamon.
    5. Mash the apples down occasionally, until the apples become sauce.
    6. If you like a smoother sauce, cook the apples down longer, taking care not to burn the apples.