Silence is Golden...Delicious, That Is

The other day, a rather random event occurred. I found myself in the company of apples - many, many apples. Here is a random question, have you ever given much thought to the quality control and inspection that occurs at your local grocer? I must say, not me. I never really gave it much thought. But because of the due diligence of one produce manager, I now have jars of applesauce to consume at my whimsy.

A driver of an apple-bearing truck pulled up to the back loading dock, with the intent of emptying his truck and delivering his bounty. Unbeknownst to the driver, he would be denied. The produce manager did a cursory inspection and found a few apples frozen. He immediately rejected the delivery. The very astute driver did not want to waste the glorious apples, so he took it upon himself to drive them to a nearby horse farm. His intent was to leave the apples for the care and feeding of the horses.

Imagine the old days, when people used the communal party line to communicate good news (conjure up memories of Sheriff Andy Taylor picking up the phone and speaking to Sarah asking her to ring a number). Well, that is exactly how that truckload of apples got distributed to my friends. The horse farm owner was overwhelmed by the generosity of the driver and knew that her horses couldn't consume all of those apples. To add to the irony, the apples weren't frozen. They were perfect, unbruised, crisp, Fuji apples.

My girlfriend and I shared a box of apples - over 80 apples. The timing was perfect for my Apple Danish Braid. That only accounted for a few of those glorious apples. We were then left with a dilemma. What were we going to do with the remaining apples? How could we use the apples without waste? Applesauce was the answer.



Applesauce is one of the easiest things to make. You can either can or freeze the results. We chose to can it. It took a little elbow grease to peel about 40 or so apples. Other than that, it was a piece of cake. The recipe calls for cinnamon and sugar. I find that if the apples are sweet, you don't need as much sugar. Try it for yourself.

So, if you are ever in the company of large amounts of apples, make applesauce! I will never buy store bought again.



Applesauce

INGREDIENTS

3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. I used fuji
4 strips of lemon peel
Juice of one lemon
Cinnamon to taste
Sugar to taste (about 1/2 cup to a cup depending on amount of apples)
1 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Remove from heat. Remove lemon peels. Mash with potato masher or use an immersion blender. Your desired texture will determine which type of masher/puree device to use.

The applesauce is ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated. It freezes easily and lasts up to one year in the freezer. You can also can the applesauce, which is what we did.