Free Is A Lot Of Hard Work

There’s an orchard not too far from my house. It’s an apple orchard, but the apples weren’t harvested this year. The owners said we could glean what we wanted.

We picked a couple of bushels of apples. But, “free” apples don’t become applesauce. . .for free.

First step is to wash and cut up the apples.

If you are doing applesauce, you can pretty much use any apples. You have to cut them anyway, you cut out the bad parts.

We ended up with bins and bins of cut up apples.

Next you cook those apples. They cook for about 45 minutes until they are very tender. That’s a lot of cooking and a lot of pots full of apples.

On the positive side, the house smells DELICIOUS!

Next, all those cooked apples go into a strainer. You turn and turn and out comes applesauce. Big bowls full.

Cooked apples ==> Sauce ==> jars

The cooking pots are replaced on the stove with canners.

After 45 minutes you finally end up with jars of applesauce.

We ended up with 77 quarts. The shelves will fill up even more when the rest get stored.

There were a LOT of dishes to wash. Most of them were washed and used several times over the last couple of days. But, the cleanup is finally done.

Well, ALMOST all the cleanup is done.

I’m not sure I can handle much more free apples.

Tomorrow I take a quart to the orchard owner. He’s entitled to some free food as well.

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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