This past week we went on our first of 2 apple picking trips. In about 10 minutes, the boys picked 108 pounds of apples. No, I am not making use of hyperbole – the cashier weighed it out and we have 108 pounds of apples.

To be sure, we usually pick a good 50 or 60 pounds every year to make apple sauce, and it’s usually over the course of (what seems like) many hours of whining, weedling, and trips to the porta potty. I don’t know what happened this year, but apparently the older boys have grown up. They moved in on that orchard like a military operation and filled 5 giant bags in about a minute. It was an expensive trip that leaves me eagerly anticipating the days when our apple saplings are large enough to bear their own fruit.

So, we’re doing apple sauce at the moment. Most of what we picked are Macouns, which are in our opinion superior for sauce. As a variety they tend to be a bit on the small side, so we try to get in as soon as they’re available for picking and get to the biggest of them for sauce. The rest are Honeycrisps, which are great for eating but make for kind of watery applesauce and pies, as we’ve discovered.

The cores and peels will not go to waste either. Many of you will probably assume that they will go to feed the goats, and you would be correct. The rest of it will be boiled down to make apple cider jelly. It’s an amazing recipe that Rachel came up with last year that’s out of this world on a piece of homemade bread. We’ll probably also have the freeze a couple of pies and… something else. After all, we DO have 108 pounds of apples….