I'm drowning in apples!
We harvested the tree on Saturday, minus 2 people who usually come. So I have WAY too many apples left, even after giving boatloads more away to extra people. I usually make applesauce, apple crisps (bake the crisp and then freeze the whole thing), pies (freeze the makings of a pie so that all I have to do is buy the crusts when I want to make one), and this year I decided to give my Jack LaLanne juicer a try at apple juice. It worked GREAT! BUT, it took 17 dozen (that's 204 apples) to make 3 gallons! Of all the ways I prepare and freeze the apples, the juice was by far the easiest. Now the question - does anyone have any apple recipes that I can make and freeze? I have a spare fridge in the basement and I can store a small amount of regular apples, but I have to do something with the majority of them or I'll end up throwing a bunch out. HELP! |
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| How about apple pie filling? It's easy to make but you do need ClearJel if you want to freeze it. I've done this in the past and it works great, plus uses lots of apples. Is there a food bank near you? They may appreciate a few bushels of fresh apples. |
| I do make pie filling (see above), but don't use ClearJel. Just make the filling as I regularly would and vacuum freeze it. Works great!
I thought about a food bank, but around here they don't seem to want to take perishable items, especially if they weren't commercially grown to FDA specs. We do spray the tree twice over the summer, so not sure if that would matter. I'll make a phone call on it in the morning. |
| apple butter.......takes a whole boat load to make a couple of quarts.....and a lot of stirring.
Yeah we made juice too, great way to get rid of a lot of apples, plus it froze well. dried apples, applesauce |
I'm in the same boat - but have 3 trees..... 
...but I do have sheep who LOVE apples!!! I dehydrate and bake. (or rather, Todd bakes). I use an apple/corer/slicer - works great. In the past I have run apples thru the above device, then bagged them in freezer ziplocks in amts sized to my favorite recipes. Then I can just grab a bag, defrost and bake. Works good, easy and doesn't take much freezer space. |
| Try finding recipes with apples in them, like cabbage and apples
pork with apples ect. I too am over grown BUT with pears. !!!!! not as usefull as apples. |
I'd have no idea what to do with all the apples from a tree, which is why I stop mr. j EVERY YEAR when he tries to plant one. I just don't want to be the one always having to go pick them up. I'm busy in the house but extremely lazy when it comes to outside chores. 
However, outside of pie and empanada's... I love baking apple muffins. And it's what I have an entire TWO shelves in the freezer filled with since we pack in ziplock bags (individual sandwich ones) and put in the microwave for 40 secs for breakfast for the boys EVERY morning. So maybe find a good apple muffin recipe you like? Also I know cookies generally freeze well so maybe a cookie recipe? One I love but have never tried freezing: http://forum.oes.org/viewtopic.php?t=19604 There's always giving away chocolate or caramel dipped apples for halloween.  |
OES Mommy wrote: Try finding recipes with apples in them, like cabbage and apples
pork with apples ect. I too am over grown BUT with pears. !!!!! not as usefull as apples. LOL, and I have 2 pear trees too!!! I am eating sliced pears for lunch right now  |
| We used to go pick peaches on Colorado's Western Slope in late summer. Bushels and bushels would come home with us along with apples and pears. You are right about pears......there's only so much pear jam you can make for a year's worth. |
How about apple butter or jelly, Chris?  |
| We're not big enough fans of apple butter to make much of it, but jelly sounds good. Thing is, I've never canned anything - don't know the first thing about it. I freeze everything. Is it easy to do? |
| Chris, this may be too late but try here:
www.recipes4living.com They have 120 recipes using apples  |
| Thanks, Holly. I'll keep that site as a reference for next year.
The final count of apples that I processed is 61 dozen - that's 732 apples. All by myself, over the course of 6 days. I made and froze: 5 gallons of apple juice, 10 lbs of applesauce, made the fillings for 5 pies, and froze plain apples for 4 apple crisps. I also found a recipe for an apple butter that you can freeze, so I used 22 lbs of apples to make 11 lbs of apple butter. Then I boxed 2 small boxes of apples and stored them in the spare fridge for the kids, and I STILL have apples left over! Thing is - now I'm appled-out. Don't want to see another apple until next year! Oy. |
| These are amazing
http://www.ehow.com/how_4490554_apples-apple-fritters-cider-batter.html |
| How about a biiiiiig compost heap made of apples???? |
Paula O. wrote: How about a biiiiiig compost heap made of apples????
Our backyard borders on a farmer's field, and that line is about 350' long with trees growing all the way down it - which is why we call it the tree line. We did throw most of the bad apples on the tree line, but we also threw a boatload of good ones on the other edge of the farmer's field for the deer. Really hated throwing away good apples, but we had no containers left to put them in. Even used 2 large laundry baskets after we ran out of boxes! Plus, I throw the skins and cores on the tree line when I peel/core/slice them. The bees love them. Not sure if any other small critters partake, but it's there for the taking! |
| I am still drowning in apples. We still have TONS on 2 of the 3 trees.
this was yesterday: 
and MORE apples! 
amazingly, even the sheep are getting tired of them |
| Okay that really puts me in the mood for some apples!! Those are pretty. Looks like a lot of work for you guys. |
| I'm so jealous! Can't wait til I have a yard, I'm going to cover that thing in fruit trees. |
Lil Walty wrote: I'm so jealous! Can't wait til I have a yard, I'm going to cover that thing in fruit trees.
be careful what you wish for.....we said the exact same thing! |
got sheep wrote: Lil Walty wrote: I'm so jealous! Can't wait til I have a yard, I'm going to cover that thing in fruit trees. be careful what you wish for.....we said the exact same thing! Yep, we did too. Now mind you - we only have ONE tree and it's too much!! Dawn, your tree looks WAY too familiar, and I shuttered just looking at it!! |
| Chris, Dawn.... Is it appletime??? How was the harvest this year? |
| Dawn's apples are probably being "smoked" - they had some fire excitement down the road from them from the sound of it. kristine |
| We harvested the tree last week-end. The crop was down very considerably this year, and we have no idea why. Even in summers when we've had droughts, we got more apples than we did this year. Didn't even have to call anyone to come help harvest, and we kept them all because there really wasn't that many - bummer. All I got made was 3.5 gallons of juice, and that's it! Hopefully it comes back better next year. Just wish I knew why . . . |
| Mine had an off year. One tree was loaded, the other 2 barely had any. I made apple sauce and apple butter, apple crisp and then froze some already sliced to be used over the winter. Also a bunch went to the very appreciative sheep! They were extra happy, as with the drought they have no fresh pasture - they are living on hay since June. The fresh and juicy apples were a very big deal to them! It was my early tree, so was done a long time ago. And as Kristine said - we had a very nearby wildfire this week - I'll have to get busy downloading pics and share. It was scary, and very smoky - bad respiratory stuff for all of us.  |
| I wonder if all the orchards had an off year too? Very interesting. Happy sheep! |
| http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/ap ... f887a.html One thing the Nuttelmans have counted on since they purchased their farm from Merlin Burgland in 1984 is the unpredictability of an apple orchard |
| Great article, guest! |
| Very interesting. I'm learning some stuff I never knew! |
Drezzie's Mom wrote: Very interesting. I'm learning some stuff I never knew! ^^^ Me too! |
| That's my goal in life! Today I'm planning on learning how a little itty bitty Gala tastes. It is sitting in my fridge. Yum! |
Ron wrote: That's my goal in life! Today I'm planning on learning how a little itty bitty Gala tastes. It is sitting in my fridge. Yum! Gala's are really good - I think so anyway! |
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