Crash Course in Canning

I got a text this morning, “Mom wants you to come straight home from practice, she says we’re doing an urban farming project and you can blog about it.” Gah! They have found my weakness! So of course I came home and discovered that we were making applesauce! Apparently applesauce does not come from cans. It comes from jars. And a lot of time intensive work. Little House on The Prairie and every other book that exists and mentions canning makes it sound like a horrendous process. It probably is. Out here on the urban farm we have stoves, running water, and fans which make our job a little easier.

.
First we gathered all of the apples from our neighbor’s tree. (She said we could have them.) then Mom, Donna, and Billy cut them up, and cut out the bad parts so that there would be no protien (worms) in our product Billy was obviously hard at work. Thankfully ownership leads to responsibility.

Then we boil the apples down so that they are soft. And mushable.

After that I turn them in the food mill. Until only the skins remain. the skins are in the bowl to the left. They can be used for Apple Cake. Here on the farm we use the whole buffalo, ...or apple.
I then funnel the applesauce into jars. This whole process is repeated until you run out of apples or jars. Then the jars are given a bath in boiling water for 20 minutes which according to our canning expert causes the contense to boil sanatizing it, and then as they cool the air is sucked out and the lids seal.

So we weren’t doing it ingle wilder style over a fire with a cauldron (just a big pot on a stove), but in the end three hours of work for 14 jars. Probably cheaper to buy it, but during the apocalypse we’ll be happy we know how. And we spent time together as a family. Awwww.