Applesauce

Last week I promised the kids we would go to the Farmers Market and orchard on Friday. I woke up tired on Friday, but they remembered, so after school we were off to the Market and Orchard. The kids rode the ancient kiddie rides at the Farmer's Market and we got 8 baskets of apples at the orchard. I had no intent to do applesauce that day,but Sophia was convinced and excited to do applesauce.

The last time we did applesauce she single-handedly milled almost all of it. I was so amazed at the time because she was only four that I must have praised her up and down and now she loves doing applesauce and has been begging for months to do it together. Its amazing what praise can do. I'm wondering where else I need to use more of it in my mothering!?

I didn't want to let all that excitement go to waste so Friday afternoon we started our applesauce and we got it all done on Friday and canned and frozen on Saturday. I was so glad we did it right away.

Here's the beginnings of the applesauce...

Rub-a-dub, getting a bath in the sink...

My enthusiastic worker with an enthusiastic eater in the backround...

Lots of containers were needed to hold all the applesauce we made this year...

Eli getting in on the action...

Daddy the innovator finding a better way to get the job done, and getting to use his toy in the process.

Elijah definitely wanted to be a part of the tool action...

The finished product.

We did 7 1/2 half bushel baskets of apples and ended up with 64 quarts of sauce. It was a fun family evening. Who knew making applesauce could be so much fun?