Applesauce

Every year, for as long as I can remember fall meant apples in my house. We would always go to an orchard and pick several bushels. Then we would come home and make home made applesauce. I remember doing for years and years. I remember my Granada coming to our house and helping my mom. After Grandma died, I helped a little more ever year as I got older.

Mom got sick in 2005 and wasn't up to making the sauce, so that was the first year that I did it alone, albeit at her house and under her supervision. I was so glad that I did because I really learned what I was doing then. And that was very lucky because in Jan of 2006, mom died and I was left on my own to keep the tradition alive.

So today was the day that we headed out to the orchard. We picked 2 bushels of apples. I would have liked to pick more, but at $22 a bushel 2 was all I could afford. I guess this year I will not get to be as generous with it as I like to be. Everyone seems to love a pint or a quart of canned home made applesauce.

Now, however, I beginning to reap the rewards. I have peeled and sliced half a bushel and they are as I type being cooked down to the soft sweet and spicy sauce that is our family tradition. The aroma of apples, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger now permeate the house and there is nothing like it in the world. I don't know if my kids will continue when I no longer can, but I hope they do because there is nothing that can compare to the taste of home made applesauce