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Did my first apple harvest for a tree that was in the backyard of my house. Around a year after we moved in after removing some trees that were growing into our fence and garage and working on building soil health our neighbors pointed out that we had an apple tree. They said that for the entire 10 years they lived here they didn’t see an apple but were seeing a few two years ago. After missing my window last year I finally got around to harvest.

For around 1 hr or 2 of work I collected around 27 lbs of apples. I sorted around one third to be aesthitically pleasing enough to be eaten raw with the rest too ugly. I gave half away to the same neighbor and had to find something to do with the rest.

I made half into apple butter which I cooked in a crockpot for hours after dousing them in sugars. I ended up making around 7x 8 oz jars worth.

The rest I soaked and gently simmered in a pot with spices. The next day I mashed all the apples and got the remainig juice from the mashed sauce. I added raw honey to the juice and then dilted with alcohol (half in cognac and half in grain alcohol) to get it around 20% ABV. These cordials will last me all year.

What else should I do with apples next year or when I got back to harvest again?

  • antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    2·
    18 days ago

    There’s a machine that cores, peels, and makes spiral slice apples. You can then with one knife cut turn it into rings, which dry easily in a food dehydrator. If you’re making juice, I’ve heard a mop bucket works pretty well for pressing. It’s pretty easy to ferment apple juice with cider yeast, champagne yeast, or even beer yeast. If you freeze distill hard cider it becomes apple jack - you freeze hard cider in a bowl and drop it into a salad spinner to leave the frozen water in the center. Apple sauce is also a good base for homemade fruit leather with any other fruit.

    • dumples@midwest.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      18 days ago

      My neighbor’s have the handheld spiral cutter. We have the attachment for the kitchenaid. I think the hand crank is better.

      I made a cordial based on some juice extraction by adding raw honey and alcohol. I would like to have the juice more concentrated than it is now.