Canned Apples

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 6 More quarts are already in the box from the first cooking.

 Just to harass the coons, crows and squirrels on my place who have been stealing my apples (I don't begrudge the ones the deer get) I went out yesterday after a market trip to the flea market and picked almost all that was left and peeled and cored them last night. I put them in a bucket of water in the downstairs reefer and got up and canned about 15 quarts this morning. I did 2 cookers of 7 quarts each in the pressure cooker and just boiled the remainder soft and canned them old school.

  In the first cooker when I opened the pressure cooker it looked like a lot of liquid had boiled out and one jar was canted. I picked it up to tighten the lid and the lid blew off and hot apples sprayed all over the fridge, cabinet and a few stuck on my bare arm. (Note to self: Hot apples straight from the cooker hurt and they leave a mark.) I never had that happen before and hope not to in the future.

Edit: My wife says the likely cause was me cooling down the cooker too fast and removing the lid which forced the liquid to pull out of the jars. The second batch I let cool more normally and less of and issue and no "explosion". I really thought the jar had blown up when it occurred but was just the lid blown off.

  My wife makes some kind of apple crumble like her mom used to make that is real sweet, crunchy and tasty. That is what will happen to most of these.

  The last time I harvested apples was about 3-4 years ago and I think I got about 35 gallons. This time I might have salvaged 7-8 gallons. The critters got all of them last year and all off 2 trees this year. I have 2 trees side by side and one was stripped of every single apple and maybe half off the other one before I picked them yesterday. What always amazes me is the ones on the low limbs (under about 6' high) are gone and I assume the deer get them but there are lots of them up 7-9 feet high but the horse and mule who love them and could reach them but don't.

 Anyway, I expect a visit from PETA any day for harassing my local wildlife in this fashion and my conscience is already bothering me for depriving them of their favorite snacks this way(Not! :D :D).

[A-z farmer]

We sawmiller 
Nice job canning the apples.
I think that if more People Eating Tasty Animals we would not bee so over run with critters.
For many years we would have hunters come from the big apple and fill up on Coons ,woodchucks,and pigeons and black birds.They were all very nice people and they ate everything they caught.I think it was to keep a tradition going and what they were brought up eating .
We only had one rule with the coon hunters that they could not start a fire under a tree to get them to come down ,it happened but not that often.
So now I trap between 100 and 250 woodchucks a year and have propane cannons to harass the birds.
I had department of environmental conservation come to take all their deer away from our farms and she said I might not be able to grow some crops they like anymore and deer eat anything .
Zeke

[WV Sawmiller]

Farmer,
 
   I don't mind sharing a little but there are limits and when they come in and strip the whole tree of golf ball sized apples it kind of gets on my nerves. The deer just get the low hanging apples and the ones that fall naturally or in the wind so they are mostly salvaging what would otherwise go to waste. Plus I eat their less congenial cousins (I'm getting to the point I don't have the heart to shoot the ones who come bed down next to me while I am sawing or stand 5 yards away at the gate as I ride my ATV up to my deer stand while packing a loaded deer rifle). I have eaten coon and woodchuck but so far have passed on the pigeons and blackbirds but would not, on principle, turn down a tasty looking dish containing them. 


 Wifey opened up a jar of these canned apples and made a batch of Apple Crisp or Apple Crumble. It is very good. She meant to add nuts which were not on the recipe but would have gone well. The oatmeal makes it crunchy and it all turned out very well.

[WDH]

Blackbirds might be dangerous.  From Wikipedia: 

"Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds, Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened, The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish, To set before the king.

The king was in his counting house, Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour, Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden, Hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird, And pecked off her nose.^"

[Roxie]

the horse and mule who love them and could reach them but don't.

You can lead a horse to apples, but you can't make him eat. 

Any chance that your wife would share that recipe for apple crisp?  If it's a sacred family secret, I'll respect that, but that looks too good to pass up and I'd rather eat apple crisp than apple pie any day of the week. 

[WV Sawmiller]

@Roxie ,

 She started with a recipe out of her childhood recipe book and we used about a 7X12 inch glass pan because that was what was readily available.

3/4 Cup flour
3/4 cup butter
1-1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
1-1/2 cups oatmeal
6 medium tart apples
tablespoon of lemon juice

Put apples in bottom of a 2" deep, 6X8 pan, mix remaining ingredients and spread and press on top of the apples and cooked at 375 F till apples are tender (about 30 minutes)

 She used about a quart of canned apples which were soft and tripled the mixture because of the pan size. Because the apples were already cooked and soft she just watched till the crust was pretty dry. She used self rising flour so it rose respectably but you might try plain. Also I think a cup of nuts would have been good. Hers tastes kind of like a big soft granola bar on the soft apple base and was real good.

[Roxie]

Thank you!  I'm looking forward to making it soon. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I'm finding it is even better warmed up than it was hot out of the oven. 

   Kind of like making hot chocolate back when we had a milk cow. You had to first chill the milk then warm it back up to make hot chocolate. I remember milking the cow, straining the milk, adding chocolate and trying to drink and it was not good.