Applesauce

Despite all the turmoil in my life I am still managing to do some of my favorite seasonal activities and am trying out some new ones.

Apple and raspberry picking are annual traditions in our household. They've taken on a larger role since we decided to try eating as locally as possible. Now instead of filling one bag of apples the kids and I fill three or four. Instead of enough raspberries to eat fresh for a few days and make a pie we're picking enough to freeze several bags for over the winter.

Last year I tried freezing peeled and cut apples in pie plate shapes. It was a waste. I only made one pie and one crisp out of the frozen apples. As I was trolling the asiles at the store this past winter and shelling out $15 a month for the individual applesauce cups I realized it was something I could probably make. A quick web search proved that not only is making applesauce easy but it also freezes really well. Perfect! I've made three batches now, each different from the other. Some were frozen into muffin tins and then stored in ziploc bags as individual servings and others were poured directly into freezer bags.

One batch was made with blueberries picked at a local farm. The second was with local honey as a sweetner because the apples in that batch were pretty tart and I add a bit of lemon juice. Our favorite batch so far, however, is the third that combines four different apples (Ginger Gold, Jonagold, Cortland, and Gala) blueberries and freshly picked raspberries. It'll be a great taste of late summer when the snow is flying and its frigid outside.

*Note: There is no special equipment needed to make your own applesauce. My version is a little chunky because I used a potato masher rather than puree it.