Preserving a Box of Apples

Fall fruits are in full swing here and this week I had the opportunity to work on a box of fresh gala apples.  I wanted to make more apple pie filling this year since last year's was a delicious success.  I also wanted to dehydrate some of the apples to add to my inventory of hiking snacks.

I began by peeling, coring and slicing the apples one by one.  I treated the apple slices in a lemon juice solution to keep them from browning.  Once I had enough apple slices for one round of pints in the canner, I prepared the sweet filling in a sauce pan.  It has to thicken a bit before it can be canned, but once it is ready I add the apple slices to the mix and then fill the pint jars.  It took about half the box of apples to put two rounds through the canner.  In the end I had made fifteen pints of apple pie filling.

The next stage of preserving the apples went much like the first stage.  The apples were scrubbed, peeled, cored and sliced.  They were also dipped in a lemon juice solution before being laid out on trays to dry.

The rest of the apples filled a little over six trays in the dehydrator.  When they were finished I had reduced over ten pounds of apples down to 9.5 ounces of dried apple slices.  These tasty treats will become a part of my fruity trail snacks that I will be eating when I go for hikes.