apple bounty

Any of you knowlegeable ladies know how to best store apples? and how long will they keep for? I have "found" a forgotten apple orchard here at work (some abandoned horticulture project) and the apples are free for the taking. They are mostly Cox's, but there could be some other varieties mixed in. And they are absolutely delicious!

And once I've picked them and have time to do something with them, what would you suggest? I already have plans for a batch of apple butter and an apple pie. And I may be able to fit another apple cake in the freezer. Any other suggestions?

Pie...... mmmmmmmm

Storage - a cool, dry, dark place? We have some in our cellar in an open crate so that the air can circulate.

I'm going to peel, core and slice some of mine and put them in the freezer in pie-sized portions so that later in the winter I can make apple pie or strudel quickly. Do you have a freezer?

I do have a freezer, but unfortunately it is not very big. I can only fit one or two pie-portions of apples in there I think.

How long do your apples last in the cellar? Would they last for a month? I won't really have time to do much cooking until then...

Ours have been in there for three weeks and are doing fine. We're using the bruised ones first.

How do you make apple butter?

mmm....apple butter.....

Peel and core and chop some apples and cook them as you would for apple sauce. Add sugar to taste. Once the apples are soft, mash them up (as mashed as you would like them) and add spices (cinnamon, cloves, allspice) and a bit of port. Then mix it all together and put in a pan in the oven on low heat. Cook for a long time until it thickens (I didn't time it, but it must have been in for an hour at least). Tastes delicious!

Thanks! That sounds great.

My apple salad recipe:
Apple salad:
wash and cut several apples into cubes (you can leave the skin on)
Toss with a Tablespoon or two of lemon juice to help keep apples from browning on exposure to air
Add a few grapes (or not)
Add some chopped walnuts
Add some chopped pitted dates (you can substitute golden raisins for the dates but the dates are better)
Toss all with just enough non-fat vanilla yogurt to make a nice creamy chunky salad

Keep stored in an airtight container. Can last two days, stir before eating.
This stuff is really good.
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I make apple butter in a slow cooker/crockpot.
After making applesauce, I fill the crockpot, prop the lid open a bit with a little spoon (so the stuff will evaporate and condense) and let it cook on LOW overnight, at least 8 hours. Then I stir, add spices, and let cook a few more hours on LOW until it's the right consistancy. It will form peaks that will hold.

Can you get cranberries there in the UK? I like to add cranberries to an apple pie or apple crisp. Adds some zing and tartness. Umm, good. Best to cut the cranberries in half, or chop slightly in a food processor. Otherwise the sugar doesn't get inside the cranberries, and you get a real surprise when you bite into one.

mmmm....the cranberry idea sounds really good, but I'm not sure I can get them here. Don't remember seeing any in the shops. I'll be in Illinois in a few weeks so I was planning on picking some up then to have for thanksgiving if they will survive the flight back.

some apples become the best applesauce. you can tell this if you try to make a pie with them and they get rather saucy.
:)

I love this discussion!!! Let's start a discussion on apple recipes. It's fall, need snacks for cycling. Let's share some recipes.

Here is a site with some great information on different ways to preserve apples:

Preserving Apples

I have never preserved apples but if I ever needed to (just in case) I bookmarked the page and even did a print out and placed it inside my recipe book!

:p

Sue

I'm jealous! We had a late freeze this spring that killed all the fruit tree blossoms in our area. We got one apple on our tree and the midsummer drought killed it.

I usually make applesauce. A little cinnamon, a little nutmeg, no sweetener needed. Not as time consuming as apple butter. By the time the apples are ripe I've already had enough of stirring down tomato sauce. You can use the two-part sealing lids and process the jars in a boiling-water bath, then your sauce (or butter) will keep until next year's crop comes in.

My parents have a gazillion apples this year and are making apple pie, applesauce, apple everything. If you don't have a lot of storage space free apple pie is a good way to make friends! :D

The will keep for a long time in the fridge...

My dad dehydrated a bunch, cored them, peeled them, sliced them and put them in their dehydrating machine with a little cinnamon on top. They are WONDERFUL and best make a great cycling snack. I'm sure there is a way that you can do this without a special dehydrating machine?

Anne

My DH loves to freeze apples. In fact, tomorrow, we will be on an apple run and hitting whatever farmer markets are still around. He likes whatever BIG apples he can find, then peels and slices them up, adds a little lemon juice and bags them in freezer bags. Winter apple pies, strusel, applesause...YUM. I have a friend who cores the apples then slices them in the round and dries them. I think she has a fancy drier. They are really good.

The only thing I make with apples that is pretty good is apple pie. In fact it's the only apple pie my son and daughter will eat. It was my great Aunt Rachel's recipe. My Aunt Charlotte passed it on to my mom and now my sisters and I have it. I also love a good caramel apple. I usually just slice up an apple and dip it into the caramel. Yum!

Yummmm...I'm making a big batch of applesauce this weekend! The area where I live is nick-named "Apple Hill" so we have lots of apples around here. I don't have a recipe or anything...I just try out different combinations of apples together. Last year, my best batch was a combo of about 6 types of apples. All I do is peel a bunch of apples, cut them in quarters, and boil them in a big pot with an inch or two of water until they get mushy. Then they go into the blender (I don't have a food processor and anything fancy for this purpose). It doesn't need any sugar as long as you use a few sweeter apple varieties, like Golden Delicious or Fujis. I freeze it in glass jars or Tupperware...it will last a long time frozen, but I usually eat it up pretty quick!

Yes, we got about 250 free organic apples last week, and I spent two days making apple sauce and apple butter. :p I made the sauce in big spaghetti pots, and then I made the butter in my two crockpots/slowcookers. The house smelled incredibly wonderful for two days! :p
I froze most of it in ziplock freezer bags. DH loves apple butter every morning on his toast. It's nice to serve apple sauce as a side dish along with dinners like roast chicken.