APPLE DAY!!

 Apple Day has been a long standing tradition in our house.  This picture makes me want to cry because it is from a couple of years ago, and I just cannot stand how fast they are growing up!  It makes me realize how special this day is in creating all of the warm feelings of fall -- the smell of apples cooking, a pumpkin spice candle burning, Vivaldi playing in the background (my favorite canning music for some reason), happy noises coming from the kids working together, and the familiar "pop" of canning lids sealing.  It truly is a day that makes me HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY.  It's all that good in life!

Apple Day begins here:

 We are fortunate enough to live close to one of the most beautiful orchard areas in the Northwest:  Greenbluff.  Hansen's Orchard is owned by family friends, and we think they have the absolute BEST apples & cider on the Bluff!

We try to time it so that we process the apples in the same week they are picked.  I learned this the hard way some years back.  The apples are much harder to work with after they have softened up even a little bit.  

 Here's why.  This fantastic gadget peels, cores, and slices the apples.  If they are hard, it is a snap.  If they are soft.... it turns to a mushy, mashy mess.

                                                     

 We make chunky applesauce.

 Dried Apples.

 And the very favorite:  APPLESAUCE

 

 OK -- this is a close favorite runner-up:  APPLE CRISP.

 I couldn't resist putting in this picture from Apple Day last year.  So much love going around -- warms a mama's heart it does!!

 Ohhhh ya -- this one too: APPLE PIES

It's a lot, I know, and make no mistake -- we are exhausted by the end of the day, but it's that good kind of exhausted.  The kind that lets the heart and body know that it has been a day well spent.  Those are the best kind!