Cinnamon Scrapplesauce...

Ready To Make Applesauce

When I finished the first batch of applesauce, I estimated that I had about thirty pounds of apples left from our purchase last week. I was guessing because I hadn't weighed the first batch of apple before I cooked them down. I actually had a total of twenty eight pounds. I decided to can the balance yesterday before they got mushy in our warmer weather. I got out all my supplies and set to making applesauce.

As I cranked the apples through my peeler, corer, cutting tool, it occurred to me that I really should do something with all the apple parts I'd usually toss...especially because there was still apple in those pieces. It's sort of like deciding to make soup to use up all the goodness left on a turkey or chicken carcass.

Secret Ingredient

The first seventeen pounds of apples I cut up went into two slow cookers to cook down, while I placed all the apple scrap into another pan to cook down on the stove. After everything was soft, I put it through the food mill to remove all the seeds, skins and inedible bits. I added a cup and a half of granulated sugar, and small handful of my secret ingredient...cinnamon imperials (aka "red hots") to the milled apples and placed them back in my cooking pot. I brought the mixture back up to a boil on the stove top, and it was ready to put into the jars.

Completed Cinnamon Scrapplesauce

After I canned the first batch of what I'm calling "Cinnamon Scrapplesauce", I cut up the final eleven pounds of apples to process on the stove top. I treated those scraps the same way.

The slow cooker applesauce and the stove top applesauce were all finished by dinnertime. Handsome came in from running errands, and dug right in to help. Just in time, too. I was starting to get tired!

At the end of the day, there were eight pints, plus one quart (for the refrigerator) of slow cooker applesauce; six pints of stovetop applesauce; and five pints of Cinnamon Scrapplesauce which was a true bonus! (It tastes as fabulous as it looks, by the way!)

This weekend, I'll clean up the kitchen garden for the end of the summer. I'll cut down and cover my lavender plants, harvest the last of the sweet basic and then let the rest go to seed, and just after first frost, I'll cover the garden with marsh hay to protect my perennials for the winter.

I'm sure I'll do mini canning projects through the winter, but for now, my canning supplies will be stowed away, and I'll dream of a bigger garden next summer.