Apple Butter

I said I wasnt making it this year. Nope. Not doing it.

Its a lot of work. Picking, peeling, cooking, pureeing, cooking some more, water bath canning. But then I decided to look at the apples.

Our Northern Spy tree had a very small crop this year, after 3 years of heavy crops. So I looked, and picked a nice bunch. About 12 lbs was all. There were more, too high to reach.

Well, I thought, I could make 1 1/2 batches. And then the neighbor posted that she had Yellow Delicious ripe and I looked at them and they were beautiful! So I picked another 12 lb in the rain. And then ran to the store for sugar and vinegar for 3 batches.

it was a marathon, ending about 7 pm. But the kitchen is now cleaned up (just mopped the floor) and the jars are all nicely sealed. 12 pints, 4-12 oz jars and 4 half pints.

24 pounds of apples made 16 pints of apple butter. And it smelled amazing while I was cooking down all the apples!