Applesauce

 

I had been looking for the 15 oz. size cans of applesauce at the stores lately to add to our pantry and our prepper pantry, but to no avail.  I could find larger jars of applesauce, but nothing in cans.  And of course the prices on those jars of applesauce was more than what I wanted to pay so I decided to pass.  And then I decided to just make my own and can it.

 

I gave them all a bath in lukewarm water & vinegar

I've made applesauce a lot over the year.  It is super simple to do, especially in the slow cooker.  I wash my apples, chop them up and place them in my slow cooker with a half cup of water and let them cook.  I stir them every once in awhile and then when they are soft you can mash them with a potato masher or use a stick blender depending on the consistency you like.

 

I filled up my large slow cooker and set it on high
The cores and trimmed bits went out to the chickens

Sometimes I will add a little bit of sugar to lightly sweeten the applesauce but this year I went all unsweetened.  Because I had used a variety of apples - gala, fuji, golden delicious, honey crisp, etc., the flavor was amazing.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

 

I filled up my medium sized slow cooker too!

I filled my large and medium sized slow cookers and did about eight pounds of apples I had purchased from the markdown bin.  Three bags for $1 each so a little more than the price of one jar at the store yielded me eight jars of unsweetened, all natural applesauce.  I pressure canned mine this time, but you can water bath it too.

 

Beautiful!

Eight jars of applesauce will last me quite awhile and is an excellent addition to our prepper pantry.  Super easy to make too so I will likely make more later when I find some good markdown deals on apples.