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Made the first apple sauce of the season in around three to four hours of work. Pretty cool, very, very little waste. The jars are currently cooking.
@bender@twtxt.net Over here, people can put red ribbons on their fruit trees to signal that they are free to use for everyone. Thatās an effort to minimize the giant food waste. Meadow orchard owners who do not have the time or energy anymore to harvest themselves (I reckon a lot of them are of age nowadays), can ensure that the tasty things do not simply rot away. Also, the town hangs those ribbons on trees on municipal properties.
They introduced these ribbons a few years back. Itās a really cool system. The colors of the ribbons vary from town to town. It seems most actually use yellow ribbons. The rules are to be respectful, only take what you really need (common household amounts) and be careful not to break branches, not to trample down higher grass, watch out for pants and animals, etc. Sometimes, a tree owner only grants access to a few trees. So, youāre only allowed to take from the explicitly marked ones. I mean, common sense really, donāt be an asshole. :-)
We just pick up what has fallen down. Youāre also allowed to pick directly from the tree, but the apples on the ground are already fully ripe. Or bad, but you can typically distinguish between the two rather easily. The apples that fall down early are usually full of worms. Later on, itās the ripe ones. Yeah, if a ripe one lands in a patch of spoiled ones, itās also going bad fairly quickly. So, it pays off to visit regularly and check.
Not all apples are equal, though. Itās important to check the variety before gathering them. Cider apples are worthless to us. They just taste awful. Typically, these are the tiny ones, but there are also some tiny ones which are actually very delicious. So, a taste test is mandatory.
Then for apple sauce we just wash off the occasional dirt on the apples at home. Typically, you can get rid of the worst already by wiping it on the grass when picking. We simply cut them in quarters, bigger apples also in eights. Bad spots and the cores are removed. To avoid oxidation, we throw them in a bowl of water with citric acid. Once that bowl is full, we transfer them into a big pot. Rinse and repeat.
The pot has some water in it, so the apples do not scorch. Shortly before we finish cutting the apples, the stove is heated. Then, we just let the whole mass heat up. Donāt forget to stir every now and then. The longer it simmers, the easier it gets to actually stir the now softer mass. It also sinks down a bit. You can also use a potato masher to help get some sort of a pulp.
When the pulp is fairly soft itās pressed through a strainer. People here call the food mill āFlotte Lotteā (quick Charlotte) after a brand name. We use the tiniest sieve with 1mm holes. Unfortunately, thereās no smaller one. But it gets 99.99% of the junk out, skin, missed seeds, all the coarse stuff. After each load the food mill has to be cleared from pomance, so it doesnāt plug up all the holes or worse, the coarse crap is pressed through.
For some strange reason we have not figured out, we got quite a bunch of skin pieces in the apple sauce on Wednesday. Somehow they managed to get through. Very strange, this has never happened before. To filter them out, we just passed the whole thing through the Flotte Lotte a second time.
Around 10% sugar by weight is added to help preservation. A pinch of cinnamon and then itās basically ready when mixed up properly.
Fill the apple sauce is in jars and make sure to leave enough space for some expansion when getting cooked in a moment. Wipe any spilled sauce form the glas rims, close the lids with a rubber seal and clamp āem shut. The jars are placed in a big pot or āEinkochautomatā (translates roughly to preserving machine). Itās a large pot that is electrically heated and automatically maintains the temperature using a thermostat. The water level has to be about 2/3 of the top layer of the jars (they can be stacked). Any higher is unnecessary and just wastes water. The jars get cooked for half an hour at 90Ā°C. Then, they can be lifted out with a pairs of jar tongs. After cooling down, the clamps are removed. If a jar hasnāt sealed properly, you notice it right away.
The last thing is to label and store them in the cellar or somewhere.
Eventually, pull on the rubber sealās tab to open a jar, put the apple sauce on a waffle or something else and enjoy the blast of taste in your mouth. :-)
Oh, that text got a wee bit longer than anticipated. 8-)
