Apple EVERYTHING

Lessons in patience include letting the children all take turns climbing the ladder and pick apples one at a time. The children then proceed to try to pick the best apples and you encourage them to just pick any they can reach knowing all of them are coming down but not pressuring the children just letting them each one pick their prized five apples. This was not about the time it took but about the experience.

Saturday we completely harvested our little apple tree! Which means we spent the day processing apples! At first even the pealing and slicing was slow, I think the children where eating them as fast as we could peal and slice them! Finally I did have to say no more for fear of what that many apples would do to their stomachs.

I am so grateful for technology. We used two crock pots, an instapot and two food dryers all going at once to help us process these apples faster. But one of the best things we used was this apple peeler and slicer that worked so quickly! Our little apples are only 25 percent perfect apple shaped and sized. So using it on the odd shaped apples was a fun challenge. The kids loved taking turns turning the handle and doing it themselves.

We made applesauce, apple butter, apple chips, and at the very end of the day we even fried up some apple slices for a special treat! What a full fun day. I don't think these products will last very long around here!