Taking care of all the apples
As I grew up, my mother had this great elektrolux kitchen machine that could eat whole cooked apples and separate out the core on making apple sauce.
Our family would therefore collect all the apples we could get hold of in the fall, and those who we could not keep as they were in the shed, (to be eaten later in the winter), would be turned into apple sauce and kept in the freezer without sugar. Apple sauce and brown cheese would then be our everyday breakfast all winter through, and as strange as it may sound, they taste really well together.
In my own household I have gone back to drying apples, as I find them easier to store, not needing to use precious space in the freezer. Actually drying them still keep them fresh and tasty, even for a couple of years when needed, as apple harvests are not neccesarily rich every year.
Still I must admit my appleslices do not dry on strings in my windows. MY supermachine is my Excalibur drier, that handles the drying process overnight with gret ease.
Every day I collect the apples that has fallen down from the trees. I wash them if needed, take out the core, and cut off the endings (as those are harder to dry).
The rest of the apples get cut into ¼ inch thick slices and put on a drying rack. Some of the apples get sprinkled with grounded ginger or cinnamon, others are kept plain, making sure I have apples for any occation.
When they are dried, I stack them in food quality plastic bags (I get mine at IKEA), as I find that makes it easier to keep insects away. The bags I then often put in boxes, as the dried apples are considered a great treasure by our annual mice invasions.
Dried apples tastes great eaten as they are, but can also be cut into pieces with a pair of cissors and added to a blend of breakfastcereals or a porridge. It can also be used in a pie, which I will post a recipie for later.
Both core and endings moves on to my birds, who really enjoy them.
Finally the rotten or othervise damaged parts, are passed on to the compost bin to become new "gardenpower" next year.
