Last weekend, we picked two bushels (about 25 pounds) of apples at a nearby orchard, Heinz's Orchard. In fact, the only one I could find within a reasonable distance and in this county. They told us they're the closest one to Chicago. Most of the ones I found listed are in Woodstock, IL, which we've never been to and it's in the next county over. The orchard was fun and we chose to pick fallen apples - they come half the price of the ones still on the trees. There were plenty on the ground and many were quite beautiful. We had no trouble filling up our bags with Jonathans and McIntoshes.
I'm not going to rant about the fact that no one ended up coming either weekend for an apple sauce party. However, Colin and I enjoyed processing most of a peck over both Saturday and Sunday. It wasn't necessarily difficult, just took waiting and watching time. We managed to do other things, include watch "The Lightning Thief" (which isn't all that good but it is fun) and "Pirates of the Caribbean" (yesterday was "Talk like a pirate day," after all) and play with electronic toys (Colin) and read a book (me). I also baked a batch of banana nut muffins, which I like but Colin and Shaheli seem to absolutely love. For Saturday night, I tried my hand at making goulash, which turned out pretty well despite the can of baked beans I've been trying to determine how to use up. I bought two cans early in the summer, some store brand, and we ate one with bratwursts and it was just so yucky. So I'm glad the rest of the goulash helped mask the flavor of the baked beans.
A little bit more backing up: Friday I took a little trip to McHenry, a town roughly 10 miles west (therefore 20-25 minutes) of here. The main reason was because the library there had a book I wanted but was checked out from the closest library. The library was strange; all the stacks were in one room. They did a good job with what they had, but the huge modern chandeliers and the lone high window made for some odd atmosphere. While there, I had more plans shaped around letterbox locations and a forest preserve. I only found one letterbox (had directions for three) and surprised myself by hoofing it on a 4-mile loop. I planned on just one leisurely mile or so, but realized if I went fast I could easily do the whole loop and still be back in time to pick up Colin. So I did and it felt awesome.
Anyway, here are pictures of the apple sauce process:
A sink full of apples, Colin cutting one up.
Pre-cooked.
Mushy cooked ones.
Apple mills are tons of fun to play with!
There are two different colors here - we had some we needed to cook some more and that's where the darker sauce on top came from.
Edit: This was post last night (Monday 20 September 2010) but I had to fix the photo links this morning when I noticed they weren't showing up. Also, said quarts instead of pints ... I knew that.
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