Processing our apples is a messy job, but necessary; otherwise the fruit from two trees would go into the composter. They aren't good eating apples; they go soft quickly, so they aren't good candidates for the food bank. Somebody has to process them all quickly, and that somebody is me. Plus, they make awesome applesauce.
Trying to give apples away is not unlike trying to give away zucchini when there are dozens and dozens everywhere.
A friend's husband once joked, about the small farm town where they lived, that he always closed the truck windows when he parked in town, no matter how hot it was. If he didn't, someone would leave zucchini on the front seat.
We are blessed with two varieties of apples, although I don't usually feel it as blessing during the picking, prepping, cooking, and putting through the food mill.
Thank heaven for food mills. Without one, I would be peeling and coring all day; the mill allows me to cut, remove both ends and that's it - into the pot they go.
The results are worth the work, even more so because we use no herbicides or pesticides on the trees.
I never use a recipe, but the applesauce is always good - a little tart, only very lightly sweetened. This year's crop will make about 20 pints for the freezer.
In the dead of winter, this tastes awfully good
