A great fall day

Well, I have no recipes for you this time, folks.  I just thought I'd share some pictures from our fantastic fall Sunday.  We went with some friends to Hobart, IN to an apple orchard and went apple picking!  This is a newfound, beloved tradition of Peter and I (well, I love it).  There is just something so fun and exciting about the "gatherer" mentality and harvesting something (even if it's a small bag of apples...that counts as "farming", right?)

Apple cider donuts...delicious 

On the tractor to the fields...Flint was our driver

 There was also a HUGE barn that was filled with merchandise, apples, other produce, and food stands with cider, donuts, apple pie a la mode (next time...it looked delicious!).  We got there pretty early, and thank goodness, because when we were all done picking, it started to rain and there were a bazillion people there to purchase and pick.

When I got home, I totally should have studied for the OB/GYN shelf exam coming up this Friday, but I made applesauce...don't judge.  Anywho, I got a super sweet food mill from my mom-in-law Lisa last Christmas, after I told her how I slaved away at peeling, coring and slicing apples for my applesauce last year.  Basically, you just quarter whole apples, toss them in pots of boiling water, and cook until super soft.  Then crank through the food mill, and TA-DA!  Applesauce!!

Now, what I did isn't technically "canning"...I mean, I don't have pots of water heating up sterilized jars, or any of the other rules you must follow to make sure jars are shelf-stable.  I just don't have that kind of background knowledge to be fully confident that yes, my jars are completely sterile, and no, you will not get Clostridium botulinum toxicity from eating my canned goods.  So I refrigerate all my jars...and we eat them pretty quickly so it's not a big deal.