Way back about 35 years ago, Mom and Dad owned a small apple orchard in southern Michigan. Most of their apples were Red Rome. Our family traveled there from Minnesota each fall to pick a lot of apples to bring home (and, of course, visit the folks). Mom had a great hand-cranked apple peeler/corer/slicer and we all had fun preparing lots of apples for her to can.
But somewhere along the way, I put mine away and have been hand peeling apples for years and years. It did the job but the job was WORK and went so slow.
Now that we have a young, bearing orchard, the thought of peeling several five gallon buckets full of apples gave me the willies! So, remembering Mom’s apple peeler, I picked up one at our local L & M farm store. It cost $14.99. I wondered if it would work nearly as well as Mom’s did back when…
David’s girlfriend, Ashley, came over and we fastened the peeler to the top of our kitchen island and started peeling apples. It worked every bit as well as Mom’s peeler, giving us a whole big pan full of apples, all peeled, cored, and sliced in about half an hour!
I made a light syrup and we added the apples, heating them until they got limp and shrunk down so more would fit into a quart jar. We ended up with nine quarts from that first batch. We had so much fun peeling them, too. She ran the peeler and I retrieved them, cutting off any bad spots and cutting the sliced apple in half, which made perfect pie pieces. Then we had a big pot full of peelings and cores. I put those into my Mehu Liisa steam juicer as those apples were really juicy. We ended up with three quarts of beautiful juice!
I’m real excited because we’ve got a crate plus a bucket and a half of apples still on the porch. What fun! And the pantry is getting stuffed too.
Don’t forget the Denver Self-Reliance Expo as I’ll be there, along with Dave and Ilene Duffy, Don Childers and his wife, and Jeff Yago the alternative energy guru. Come, stop by the Backwoods Home booth and say hi! (I’ll also be speaking on gardening and canning.) — Jackie
wonder if the apple peeler will work on pears? i am very jealous of your apples wish i could find some locally as our trees are not producing yet. we do however have an abundance of pears.
We have a really nice peeler, but the apples have to be so hard and crisp to use these and it doesn’t work on the sort of apples you often find in bulk for a good deal. Very frustrating to have to do all these by hand!
DonnaB,
Yes, the Mehu Liisa really gets tons more juice out of fruit than just using a jelly bag. I feel like I wasted SO much juice in the past. Whew!
That’s great there’s a fallen fruit rescue. What a great idea!
Yep, we love our canned fruit in the winter too. I LOVE looking at all those jars of fruit in the pantry. And, of course, the pretty jelly.
Jackie, that is a great idea to use the peelings and cores to make apple juice. I’m going to have to do that, although from your posts I’m becoming more convinced that I need to get a Mehu Liisa. Sounds like it draws out a lot more juice from the fruit.
I usually only have crabapples so make applesauce. (Tried pickled crabapples once but didn’t care for them.). There is a “fallen fruit rescue” organization in my city where folks with fruit trees in their yards can list their locations. Instead of falling to the ground and rotting, volunteers pick the unwanted fruit and get to keep it (the owner gets a share if wanted but they never do).
This always provides apples for free which is helpful to the budget. I always heard about canning apple pie filling with the regular apples but am not fond of pie (other than lemon meringue and pumpkin). It was always more applesauce (which I love warmed and spooned on ice cream) but I discovered I can just can them in a light syrup and use as canned fruit the same as peaches, pears, and saskatoons. A bowl of canned fruit is very appealing in the winter; those bright peaches and fragrant pears add a touch of sunlight to the dark winter days.
Mom always canned when we were kids and we used to love watching the “volcanic swirls” that formed in the dark purple liquid when milk was poured into a bowl of canned saskatoons. Mind you as kids, there was always a bit of whining whenever Mom said have some canned fruit when we wanted dessert. Now as an adult doing my own canning, I can certainly appreciate the efforts and bounty. And I still like making “volcanoes” in my bowl of canned saskatoons.
Rick,
Check out the blade on the peeler you first bought. Mom’s got dull and didn’t peel worth a darn. Then Dad sharpened it up and it was back to wonderful again. We never noticed it’d gotten dull with use. My new one came with an extra blade and I’ll bet that’s why.
zerilda,
Yea, I agree with you. I’m finally done with my tomatoes too! And I mean DONE, done. Okay….well until I start in to make chili with my canned tomato sauce…. But the pressure’s off. A few more apples and I’m done with the high pressure canning.
Then oldest son, Bill, just called and said he’d gotten a buck over the weekend and will be up so I can help him cut it up and can it. Oh well, I’m glad he’s into harvesting and canning too!
Miss Jackie, Miss Sharon and I put up a lot of apples mostly as sauce. We also bake a lot of apple pies for friends. I had an apple peeler that looked like the one in your photo, our daughter loved how quickly it would whiz through a bushel of apples and kept borrowing it. She lives a couple hours away and “FORGOT” to return it every time when we’d see her. I finally gave it to her and she makes good use of it all autumn long. I found a similar one, but not the same, purchased it and to my dismay it works rather poorly. So I am ready to scour the local farm markets for one like the original. I jut hand peeled a couple buckets of apples, and have been disabused of that foolishness. Love y’all Rick
I wonder if an apple peeler would work on pears?
The finished result is lovely. Doesn’t it make you feel so good to put food by?
I’m very glad you are at a point where you are getting good harvests. Must have been all the wonderful pruning we did a couple of years ago…tee hee hee.
I love my apple peeler, have had it for several years. Even by myself I can whip out a bushel of apples in no time. Glad you got one.
I just finishe dehydrating the last of the tomatoes. Hopefully I am done for a while.
Enjoy your blog so much, also I have shared some of the Bill Bean seeds and friends love that tomato.
Laurie,
I hope your stepdaughter will visit us, too! I’m packing right now for the trip West.
I agree that the peelers make perfect slices for apple pies when cut in half. I love mine. I’ve told my stepdaughter in Denver about the Expo. I hope she’ll visit.
Hello Jackie:
Sounds like the steam juicer is the way to go. Does it work on vegetables or just fruit?
Thanks for a great blog.
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