I spent all day today processing apples from our trees. After I finished peeling and coring them I ended up with a pretty substantial pile of apple bits. It would be a shame to just throw them out so I decided to use them for all they were worth. I was originally thinking of making them into apple cider vinegar but I didn’t really have a container I could use for that. Instead I decided that I’d make jelly out of them. Since you generally just throw out the fruit when you make jelly it kind of seemed appropriate to use the unusable parts of the fruit to start with.

What you will need:

Apple peels and cores

Water

Sugar

1 Tbs lemon juice for every 2 cups of liquid

1. Put the peels and cores in a large pot. Add water until you can see it just under the top layer of fruit. Bring to a boil.
2. Boil fruit, uncovered, until it is soft. Strain liquid into a new pot.
3. For each cup of liquid add 3/4 cup of sugar. Add lemon juice and bring to a boil. Watch it carefully so that it doesn’t boil over.
4. To check consistency: put some ice in a bowl. Scoop up a small amount of liquid with a spoon and place the spoon on the ice to get it to cool quickly. Turn spoon sideways. If the liquid has jelled onto the spoon and doesn’t appear syrupy then it is done and ready to can. If you have a candy thermometer, you want the temperature to be 220 deg F.
5. Ladle hot jelly into sterilized jars. Put on sterile lids and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.

My friends in college used to call me a Renaissance woman. I was always doing something crafty, creative, or utilitarian. I still am. My focus these days, instead of arts and crafts, has been farming as much of my urban quarter acre as humanly possible. With my husband, we run Dog Island Farm in the SF Bay Area. We raise chickens, goats, rabbits, dogs, cats, and a kid. We’re always keeping busy. If I’m not out in the yard I’m in the kitchen making something from scratch. Homemade always tastes better!

Whether they’re purchased at the farmers market, snagged at a pick-your-own farm or foraged from a local tree, apples are the tastiest part of autumn. Here are six ideas for enjoying apples over the coming months

Dried apple rings

Dried apple rings are as simple as peeling, coring and slicing your apples, then slowly drying in a dehydrator or a 130-135° oven. Paul recently shared the design for his DIY dehydrator, too. Cool!

Apple butter

Apple butter is a simple way to process a lot of apples at once. A jar makes the perfect holiday party gift! Christa recently posted a member blog about her process – what’s yours?

Apple chutney

Apple chutney is an explosion of flavors. JoyfulC shared this recipe, which includes zesty spices like coriander, cinnamon and cayenne. Experiment with other exotic flavors, like cardamom, cloves and ginger!

Apple cider

If you’re planning on making a lot of cider, a press is the best way to go, but there is a simple way to make small batches of apple cider using a food processor or blender (we all have one or the other, right?)

Simply quarter cleaned fruit (trimming away any bruises) and puree until smooth. Then create a pouch out of a couple of layers of cheesecloth , fill the pouch with the puree, and squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can from the fruit. You can store the resulting cider in the refrigerator for two weeks. Of course, there is hard cider being discussed in the Brewer’s Pub Group, too!

Apple pie filling

A way to make delicious, from-scratch apple pie faster? Genius! Canning pie filling is a tradition with bakers this time of year. Sue cold packs her apples, processes in a water bath, then uses her filling in fried pocket pies and filled donuts. What’s your recipe?

Apple cider donuts

Speaking of donuts (and cider) here’s a cider donut recipe that promises to please any crowd.