Apple Season

 

This week has been so beautiful - the air is dry and crisp, the skies are blue and there is just the beginning of a chill in the morning. Acorns are dropping from trees and local orchards are producing bumper crops of gorgeous apples.

As a little girl I helped my grandmother can the bounty of her garden. My mom dabbled in canning for a while also. But I hadn't done any canning for myself until this year after seeing so many beautiful, locally-grown apples.

Although I haven't yet delved into the world of pressure canning, I have achieved relative success with water bath canning tomatoes, pickles and apples (I use the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving). 

I always choose organic apples after discovering on the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen list that nearly all apples are heavily contaminated with pesticides. Even so, a thorough washing is important.

A mechanical apple peeler made quick work of the peels and after the canning process was complete I ended up with 7 quarts of chopped apples, all ready to be turned into easy holiday tarts later this year. 

I saved the peels and cores to make apple cider vinegar using this recipe. 

With the cool weather I've been knitting up a stack of accessories, some to become patterns eventually. One project I finished this past spring will be published in an Interweave book in 2016. As always, I'll give first notice here.

Thanks for stopping by today, I wish you a week of happy stitching!