This is the month of apples here where our little piece of heaven resides. We love em’ and purchase them by the bushel. I have a local apple farm not 2 miles away where I am able to buy “seconds” at $15 per bushel. Seconds basically means that the apple, though perfectly fine to eat, may be just slightly less than beautiful. It might not be the biggest baseball sized apple, it may have a slight scuff or other imperfection which renders it unable to be sold for the $10 a ½ peck that the orchard can demand from its perfect cousins.
I will share a secret with you though, if money is super tight, or if you are not fortunate enough to have an orchard down the road, HERE is a post on how to score some free organic produce.
What I get for my $15 is usually around 40lbs of apples, we eat them fresh, store some in the refrigerator, and as time goes on and they may start to get a little old, we start using them up for things like:
Applesauce
Apple dumplings
Apple Pie Filling
Apple Fritters
Frozen Apples
Dried Apples
You get the picture. I will say that all of this apple love does require a bit of homesteading know how and a few good tools. Hence, the Homesteader must haves for October. I have been blessed that my mother has often shared tools with me that she has owned and is no longer using, or ones that she has found a fantastic deal on and given to me.
My mom loves to encourage my love of canning, food preparation and homesteading nature. As time goes on I think sometimes she really enjoys seeing me become excited about some of the things she first loved about the country, even though I was once quoted as saying, “I will NEVER live in the country.” Yes, I have eaten those words many, many times over now.
So what does a farmgirl need for all these apples? Lets get started
(Note: I am an amazon affiliate, the pictures do link to Amazon's site and if you decide you NEED one of these products as much as I do, well then I get a small commission from Amazon because you saw it here and clicked through, by the way...thank you. The small commission helps with the cost of running this blog site).
I will share a secret with you though, if money is super tight, or if you are not fortunate enough to have an orchard down the road, HERE is a post on how to score some free organic produce.
What I get for my $15 is usually around 40lbs of apples, we eat them fresh, store some in the refrigerator, and as time goes on and they may start to get a little old, we start using them up for things like:
Applesauce
Apple dumplings
Apple Pie Filling
Apple Fritters
Frozen Apples
Dried Apples
You get the picture. I will say that all of this apple love does require a bit of homesteading know how and a few good tools. Hence, the Homesteader must haves for October. I have been blessed that my mother has often shared tools with me that she has owned and is no longer using, or ones that she has found a fantastic deal on and given to me.
My mom loves to encourage my love of canning, food preparation and homesteading nature. As time goes on I think sometimes she really enjoys seeing me become excited about some of the things she first loved about the country, even though I was once quoted as saying, “I will NEVER live in the country.” Yes, I have eaten those words many, many times over now.
So what does a farmgirl need for all these apples? Lets get started
(Note: I am an amazon affiliate, the pictures do link to Amazon's site and if you decide you NEED one of these products as much as I do, well then I get a small commission from Amazon because you saw it here and clicked through, by the way...thank you. The small commission helps with the cost of running this blog site).
ITEM #1- THE APPLE PEELER
My favorite tool, and my children’s, is the apple peeler, corer, slicer gadget. I LOVE this beauty. I have had mine for about 10 years now and it still works perfectly. The kids love it for fresh eating because as it peels, slices and cores, it makes what they call “apple spaghetti.” Never one to have peeled apples for my little ones, they get to eat the peels this way, and they find it super fun because it is different. This is also the tool I use for making apple pies and chunky applesauce and it works for potatoes too (think curly fries).
My favorite tool, and my children’s, is the apple peeler, corer, slicer gadget. I LOVE this beauty. I have had mine for about 10 years now and it still works perfectly. The kids love it for fresh eating because as it peels, slices and cores, it makes what they call “apple spaghetti.” Never one to have peeled apples for my little ones, they get to eat the peels this way, and they find it super fun because it is different. This is also the tool I use for making apple pies and chunky applesauce and it works for potatoes too (think curly fries).
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ITEM #2- THE FOOD MILL
The homesteader must have for perfect applesauce is a food mill. I have tried a number of them, but this is hands down my favorite one. I use this for applesauce, tomato sauce, tomato juice, salsa, baby food, and really any other need I have to remove seeds, stems, peels, etc. This tool allows me to make apple sauce by doing nothing more than washing fresh apples, cutting them in half and tossing them into a large stainless steel pot with some added water. I cook it for 4-6 hours (seeds, stems, peels and all) then when all of the apple mush is…well mushy, I run it all through the food mill and I am rewarded with perfect applesauce that often does not even need much added sugar and is now ready to be canned.
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I do find Amazon's stock photo of their applesauce kind of funny, you can't put fresh, uncooked apples through a food mill like the picture shows, trust me, it doesn't work, you have to cook them till they are mushy first.
ITEM #3- THE DEHYDRATOR
Another super healthy snack that my kiddos love is fruit leather or dehydrated apples. I have to admit that though these are quite loved around here, they never make it long enough to really savor because I have to be careful to keep my children’s hands out of the dehydrator (they sneak the tasty morsels of apples as they are drying). I just can’t dehydrate them fast enough! Not just for apples either, I might add, you can dehydrate any veggie or fruit, we use it for all kinds of other things too.
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ITEM #4- THE CANNER'S BIBLE
Lastly, if you don’t already own a copy of the “canning bible” from Ball, this is a must have. It was my most referred to treasure for the first several years I began preserving food and not much has changed, with the exception that now my copy is tattered and worn from many years of love and use.
There you have it, 4 MUST HAVES for the homesteader during October, if you don't already own these products, they make life simpler while preserving your food and they will hold up for years to come. I own all of these and have had each one for over 10 years, I would say I got my money's worth so far!
What do you think, is there one I missed for October? Leave me a comment
What do you think, is there one I missed for October? Leave me a comment
