Just Like Old Times

 When I was growing up my parents had a big yard, much of which was in garden and orchard.  There were several peach trees, an apricot tree, as well as an apple, a plum, and a cherry tree. There were grape vines and they grew all kinds of regular garden vegetables; tomatoes, corn, beans, onions, strawberries, and other kinds. All of this got bottled and stored and we got to enjoy it all winter.  But all that yummy goodness didn't come without a whole bunch of work at harvest time.  I have lots of memories of all us kids sitting around the kitchen table, under the careful supervision of my parents, peeling, slicing, chopping, and bottling all the bounty from our garden and orchard. Mom would be at the stove, pressure cooking all these bottles.  We learned to love the sweet sound lids popping as they sealed, ready to go in the storeroom.

Anyway, the other day Blaubeere came into a whole bunch of apples, so much so that she was more than happy to have a little help getting them all into bottles, or at least a whole lot of them into bottles.  So we planned a time and went over to spend some time socializing as well as helping with the apples.

Just like when I was a kid, most of us were gathered around the table, working on the apples in something like an assembly line.

Some of us were peeling, that was where I was assigned, which was perfectly okay with me, it was my preferred station.

Others would take the peeled apples and chop them in to smaller bits.

These were fallen apples, for one reason or another they had fallen off the tree and been picked up from the ground.  That meant that they had bruises and stuff so they weren't the prettiest apples.  But they were still fine for making applesauce after having all the bruises and spots cut off.

After they were all peeled and chopped, they went over into the kitchen to be cooked and put in the bottles.  That was Blaubeere's and Brombeere's job.

Once in the bottles they went into the big pot where they cooked the allotted time.

And lastly, they came out of the cooker and onto the counter to cool.  This is where we were able to listen to the lids pop as they cooled.

In the end, Blaubeere ended up with around 27 bottles of applesauce.  She also ended up with a couple of gallons of chopped apple pieces that she'll use for baking muffins and such.  Some mighty fine stuff comes out of Blaubeere's kitchen. And some got made into apple fruit leather. And that's in addition to all the apples that got munched on and eaten because her family really likes fresh apples.

It was a fun way to spend a few hours with Blaubeere and her family. It was a good illustration of the old adage, "Many hands make light work."  And it was a pleasant reminder of all the good times my own family spent doing the same thing when I was growing up.  All in all it was a good time.