Apples!

We have this apple tree that is so poorly taken care of it's just sad. We don't prune it. We don't thin it. We don't spray it. It gets watered by the sprinkler. That's about it. And yet, it has so sweetly produced literally THOUSANDS of apples. Sure, many of them are laughably small thanks to our failure to thin them, but they taste good. And they fall all over the ground everyday. In an effort to be less wasteful I started picking them and trying to think of things to do with them. This all started a huge "live off the land" kick and I've canned about 50 jars of various apple concoctions (apple sauce, butter, pie filling...), not to mention all the freezing I've done with zucchini (from generous neighbors) and cherry tomatoes (from our own small garden). My neighbor behind me is a master gardener and he throws stuff over the fence for me every now and then. --His plums this summer were probably the best thing I have ever tasted in my life. No joke. I've got a bunch of Winter squash from him in my garage right now. Anyway, I'm completely in love with all this stuff. I want to have a huge garden (tended by Branny, of course. I will do the preserving and occasional admiring wandering walk throughs) and can all my own food supply. Yay!

It started with caramel apples at Cailey's:

Layna chilling on the couch 

Cute pregnant Cailey

YUM

I'm apparently maniacally happy about caramel apples

Kickin' back and watching a movie while the grownups do the work

Yummy gifts

Then, Megan Hendershot came over and we made 24 quarts of chunky cinnamon apple sauce with her canning equipment (I've since invested in my own)

The boys were eager to help

Goofballs 

Dying over this adorable picture of Thane. What a heartbreaker! 

The boys kept collecting the long apple peels ("snakes") for playing and eating

I did another batch of smooth, unsweetened apple sauce (32 pints) and 4 pints of apple butter with Cailey a week or so later.

Happy helper

Happy watcher

I need a taller ladder!

Then I made a batch of 7 quarts apple pie filling. I still want to make dehydrated apples and apple chips. Oh, and pick the rest and store them in my cold storage room for as long as I can. Love me some apples!