Apples and Honey

In Jewish tradition, one eats apples and honey at this time of year. The apples and honey signify the hope for a sweet new year. As I face down the last days of summer, and prepare for the onslaught of fall, I like the thought of eating apples and honey as a way to pray for serenity over the next couple months. However, for fear of using up all my good karma in one year, I decided that we shouldn't eat all of the apples we picked this way, and instead put some up in the form of applesauce for later this year.

Earlier this week we took the kids apple-picking at Honey Pot Hill Orchards.

We brought home apples and pears. I made this basic applesauce recipe from Ball Preserving.

I used 6 lbs of apples, weighed before they were cored and peeled. 2 cups of water, 2 T lemon juice and no sugar. It made 4 pint jars and 4 Rutabaga size (4 oz.) jars.

As simple as the recipe is, I find myself drawn to want to continue working with it. This is the only recipe that I canned last year, and repeated this year. In the next batch, I might tinker with the pace of softening the apples or using cider instead of water, or other small details.

Also, check out the beautiful labels I received! They make the jars look almost professional. Thank you for sending them!