August is Applesauce and Vinegar Month

 The apple harvest is at hand. 

It's been a good year for apples, and that has meant my afternoons are spent making and canning applesauce. 

I'm made applesauce two different ways in the past. The first is to quarter the apples, simmer them till tender, then run them through the food mill. But then I learned how to make vinegar, and changed my prep method to save the peels and cores for making apple cider vinegar. 

The peels and cores go into a glass gallon jar, covered (submerged) in water, and allowed to ferment.

After a couple of weeks I'll strain off the new vinegar, jar it, and lid the jars to let it ferment a few weeks more. It will keep until we use it. The leftover peels and cores are fed to the goats.

The peeled and cored apples are simmered with a bit of water until soft.

Apple chunks simmered to softness with a cinnamon stick.

Once the apples are cooked, I can either puree them in the blender for smooth applesauce, or mash them with a potato masher for chunky applesauce.

The apple puree is scraped into another gallon jar. I work on this several hours every afternoon and when I have a gallon's worth, I sweeten if needed and add water or juice for applesauce consistency. Then I water bath can it in quart jars.

2026's first batch of canned applesauce.

Elderberry harvest is in progress as well, and the first of the muscadines are beginning to ripen. Cheesemaking continues, although production is slacking off. Busy days ahead. 

What's everybody else up to? Staying busy, or staying cool?

August is Applesauce and Vinegar Month 

© Aug 2026 by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Tasty Fermented Fruit: Apples & Cranberries

Right after the holidays, fresh cranberries go on clearance, so it's a great time to buy a bunch. 

Last year I made and canned cranberry sauce, but this year I wanted to try a recipe I found at Homesteading Family blog for fermented cranberry sauce. I lacto-ferment a lot of vegetables, but have never tried fruit before; this just seemed like the time to try it.

Ingredients: fresh cranberries, apples, raisins, pecans,
sea salt (mine is Himalayan), whey, and apple juice.

The fruit and pecans are chopped to bite-size pieces.

Sweetener is stirred in (I used unbleached sugar),
and the mixture spooned into a large glass jar.

The brine is made from apple juice, whey, & salt.

Ferment time is only a couple of days. Then it's ready to eat.

I was pleased with how delicious this is.
A wonderful addition to our winter diet.

I try to serve something probiotic at least once a day. When we have fresh milk, that's usually kefir and fruit as part of our breakfast. But with less milk now, I was looking for something else to fit with oatmeal or toast. Fermented fruit is perfect. I noticed pineapple is on sale at Aldi. Maybe I'll give that a try next.

Have you lacto-fermented fruit? Have a favorite? I'm looking for other ideas to try.

Tasty Fermented Fruit: Apples & Cranberries  

© Dec 2020 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Spring Has Sprung

Everything started turning green about a month earlier than usual.

Dogwood blooming as the wood lot greens up.

The goats are happy with the fresh forage and the cats are happy with the warmer weather.

Ellie with two of her triplets. Meowy flying in the background.

The only question was whether to take a risk and plant the summer garden early, or wait until our traditional last frost date.

Most of my winter greens have gone to flower, but the
lettuce is doing well. Shown here with fava beans, and garlic. 

Fall planted fava beans. I lost about half, but
the ones that survived are blooming like crazy.

Lone lacinato kale with flowering radishes.

Multiplier onions.

And in that multiplier onion bed. . .

A volunteer potato!

I decided to wait. Here's a look at what we're enjoying these days.

Apple blossoms. That's our winter wheat in the background.

Pear blossoms

Mulberry. Immature berries look hopefully numerous.

One of our two redbuds. This one may have to come down
because it shades the solar panels in the late afternoon.

Bridal wreath.

Periwinkle starting to bloom.

Yarrow.

Newly budding oak leaves against a beautiful blue sky.

The weather forecast for the weekend includes another cold front coming through with rain and nighttime lows back in the 30s. That's okay because I don't want it to get too hot too quickly. I'd like to enjoy spring for as long as we can!

How about you? How's April treating you so far?

UPDATE: The second photo of the goats and Meowy received some comments that led to this. . .

SuperMeowy!

Spring Has Sprung © April 2020 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Caramel Apple Butter & Blueberry Applesauce

The last days of August have found me busy trying to finish up with apples. When we first planted our two apple trees I wondered if the two semi-dwarfs would produce enough. I'm not thinking that now! I've been canning apples slices, freezing pies, and making applesauce.

The other day I made apple butter from a recipe I found in my Ball Blue Book. This book is a classic standard guide to food preservation. It's been around since 1909, but they seem to come out with a new edition every so many years with up-to-date information and new recipes in each one. The recipe I used came from the 1999 edition, but I tweaked it quite a bit. I cut the sugar in half, doubled the spices, and omitted the lemon juice.

About the sugar. Yes, I know all sugar is bad for you, but I don't produce enough honey to replace it entirely, so I compromise. I buy an unbleached cane sugar instead of standard white sugar. What's the difference? Legally sugar can be either cane sugar or beet sugar. Since all the sugar beets grown in the US are genetically modified, I choose cane sugar over it. In addition, this brand is unbleached, economical, and widely available. Plus I like the sustainable way Zulka manages it's sugar production (you can read about that here.) Okay, so much for the pitch; on to the recipes.

Caramel Apple Butter

• 12 cups applesauce
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp ginger

Mix applesauce, water, and spices in a crock pat. Caramelize the sugar and add.

To caramelize the sugar, simple heat it in a pan and stir continually to keep it from burning. Do not be distracted from your task, even if the cat tells you he's starving to death.

Riley: "But I am starving to death!!!"

Eventually the sugar will melt into a thick caramel brown syrup.

Pour into the apple butter. It will bubble and harden immediately.

Stir it in (along with the crystallized scrapings from the cooking pan). It will melt and blend with the apple butter. Cook until thick. Can in boiling water bath canner, 10 minutes for half pints.

Caramel Apple Butter

My yield was eleven half pints.

Blueberry Applesauce

Nothing difficult here. After I measured out the 12 cups of applesauce for the apple butter, I added the year's last blueberry picking to a couple cups of it, whirred it smooth in the blender, then stirred it into the remainder of the applesauce. It was heated and canned as for regular applesauce - 20 minutes in a boiling water bath canner for pints.

It's a very pretty color, don't you think? I got about five pints of this, and also used the last of my regular mouth Tattler canning lids. And I'm still not done with the apples! That's ten dozen in use! Definitely need to get some more.

Caramel Apple Butter & Blueberry Applesauce 

© Aug 2016 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

More on Homemade Apple Pectin: Testing & Storing

When I made my apple pectin the other day, I had no way of knowing for sure that it would work; that it would turn my mashed figs into jam. I knew from Joy of Cooking that grain alcohol can be used to test the pectin content in various fruit juices, but that's something I don't keep on hand.  I just figured that if it was a fail, I'd boil my pectin down more and try again. I was fortunate to have good success. My jam gelled well. Now, thanks to Dani at Eco Footprint ~ South Africa and Jake at The Homestead Laboratory I've learned is that it doesn't have to be grain alcohol to test for pectin. It can be common rubbing (70% isopropyl) alcohol.

The test is simple. Simply pour a glug of alcohol into a small glass and add about a teaspoon of the liquid pectin. Let it sit for a minute and then try to fish it out with a fork.

The pectin gels in the alcohol. If it doesn't, then the apple juice needs to be cooked down to concentrate the pectin in it. The results didn't surprise me, but I'm glad to know how to test future batches. It will also be handy for testing the natural pectin content of other fruits.

After I made my Spicy Fig Jam (recipe here), I still had quite a bit of pectin left. It is said to keep for about a week in the refrigerator, but I knew I wouldn't be using it up that quickly. Two options for longer term storage are freezing or canning it.

Freezing was certainly tempting, except that I don't have much room in my freezer. Plus, I always seem to lose track of the stuff that's in there. Things on my pantry shelves, however, are always in view and easier to remember and find. I decided to can the rest of my apple pectin.

I filled five half-pint jars. It's processed in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Did you know you don't need an official "canner" for water bath canning?
All you need is a pot deep enough to cover the jars 1-2" with boiling water
plus a rack on the bottom to allow boiling water to circulate under the jars.

Now I have homemade pectin ready and waiting for when I need it.

To read Dani's and Jake's informative posts, follow the links below:
Eco Footprint ~ South Africa, "Making your own pectin for your fruit preserves"
The Homestead Laboratory, "Fall Rhubarb and Crabapple Pectin"

More on Homemade Apple Pectin: Testing & Storing © 

June 2016  by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

A First Try at Making Apple Pectin

Several years ago I planted a crabapple tree, because I want crabapples for making apple cider vinegar and pectin for jams and jellies. It's coming along slowly and I have yet to get enough crabs to try either of those. When Dan mentioned wanting to mow under our Fuji and Gala apple trees but some of the branches were too low, I knew just what to do with all the underripe apples on those branches - try my hand at making apple pectin.

I followed the instructions in Grandpappy's Recipes for Hard Times (if you aren't familiar with it, you can read my review of it in my post, "Three Cookbooks for Food Independence.") It was very simply, really.

Chop the apples.

Cover with water and cook to a thin sauce.

Drain the liquid. That's the homemade pectin.

I got about 3 pints.

Grandpappy's recipe said it should be a thick slimy liquid and didn't say anything about cooking down the liquid further. Some instructions say to do that, but thickness and sliminess are somewhat relative, so I decided to give it a try as is and see what happened.

I had about a gallon of last year's figs in the freezer. Figs are very low in natural pectin, so I thought they would be a good test. The biggest question was how much, because different homemade pectin recipes give different ratios for pectin, sugar, and fruit. Grandpappy's recipe said to substitute 3 tablespoons pectin and 4 tablespoons sugar to any recipe calling for a box of powdered pectin. That didn't seem like enough, so I followed the suggestion from About.food and used

• one-quarter cup homemade apple pectin
• one-quarter cup sugar
• per cup of mashed fruit;

According to Joy of Cooking, commercial pectin is finicky, which is why a high sugar content and short boiling time are required. Natural pectin, they say, is not dependent on so much sugar  and requires much longer cooking to thicken the jelly or jam. I boiled and stirred, and stirred and boiled until the jam pretty much stuck to my spoon.

It's supposed to thicken more as it cools, so the next day we tried it on toast.

Not as thick as it could be, but it certainly worked well enough. I asked Dan how it tasted and he said like apples and cinnamon. My figs are pretty bland so I thought a spicy jam would be tasty. By using the above proportions, I used less than half the sugar called for with a commercial pectin, and we both thought the sweetness was just right. 

For my records, here's my recipe.

Spicy Fig Jam

6 cups mashed figs

1.5 cups sugar (0.25 C sugar / C mashed fruit)

1.5 cups homemade pectin (0.25 C pectin / C mashed fruit)

0.25 cup plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice (1 tbsp / C fruit)

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

0.5 tsp ground cloves

Stir together all ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer until thick. To can spoon into sterile jars with 1/4 inch headroom. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

I think next time I'll try cooking it down in the slow cooker.

Next - More on Homemade Apple Pectin: Testing and Storing

A First Try at Making Apple Pectin © June 2016 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Garlic, Raspberries, and More

June means...

garlic harvest,

the beginning of raspberry season,

green tomatoes,

apples blushing,

elders blooming,

popcorn needing weeding,

peaches almost ready (I should have thinned them!),

first picking of green beans imminent,

and a bowlful of wild blackberries.

What does June mean to you?

Garlic, Raspberries, and More © June 2016 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/