What do you do when you get a saturday off????

Ok, here is what I do.... I pack up my kids and husband and drive to where we used to rent while we were building out house.... they have an apple orchard they do NOTHING with... NOT KIDDING... NOTHING!!! They don't spray and they don't pick....

SOOO, we go and pick 140+ POUNDS of apples (red barron and paula reds... becaue they are the ones ripe right now!)

AND we also pick 35+ pounds of Pears (their pear trees are SAD this season due to a bad spring in MN!)

SHOWN in the sink above is just 1/4 of the apples and in the bag below are 1/2 the pears

SOOOO.... what do you do with all of these apples????

OF course, MAKE APPLESAUCE! and LOTS of it!

First you recruit your husband to do all of the cutting and throw them in to a boiling pot of water

NEXT... Get your kids to help you send them through your Kitchen Aid Strainer (they love watching the WASTE come out the end!)

THEN.... you keep the apple sauce VERY WARM in a pot until it is almost to the top (that equals 7 quarts in my pot)

NEXT..... Fill Jars leaving head space and put the lids and rings one.

THEN.... Put them in to the boiling hot canner for 25 min.

AND there you have it 28 quarts of yummy apple sauce (the 28th is in the fridge, we didn't seal it, we wanted to eat it the next day!)

This equals only 1/2 of the apples and pears we picked. The rest is out in the garage WAITING to be made into yummy apple sauce!

NOTE: I know the apple sauce looks PINK! The Paula Reds were REALLY pink inside! Also, the very thick pink syrupy looking water that the apples were boiled in, is in 2 quart jars in the fridge, I am going to experiment with using it to make SOMETHING with... maybe cake!!!???