10Nov 09
It all started with an apple seed!
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Highlights from the 2009 apple sauce days:
Three days of diligent work!
12 Bushels of apples which is about 18 file boxes of apples!!
Many willing hands making the job a fun endeavor.
The weather could not have been more beautiful.
The fall colors were in full bloom, giving you breath taking views as you worked.
Memories of our dear Grandmother on Mom’s side were brought back to memory as we worked. She is the one that got us all started on this.
By the end of those three days we had 254 quarts of apples sauce and apple pie filling stored away for the winter.
It was truly worth all the work! Great job everyone!!
Way to go workers – a diligent man shall stand before kings… Applesauce is also a gift that will win many friends. Both facts combined create a product worthy of attainment. My palate heartily agrees!!!
How I appreciated the joy everyone put in – a huge project became a joyous memory as a result…….the pings of the sealing jars, the giggles of Sarah when another apple went splat on the floor, the pouring down rain which in no way dampened the progress and actually heightened the fun, Ben and the Shipley brothers help, and I could go on and on…….
Thank you Wilkes Team for having joy in your labor (Eccl. 2:10)!
That’s fantastic! What a process you had there to put up all those jars! Just like diligent ants, gathering your food in the harvest! Go to the Wilkes thou sluggard, consider their ways and be wise!
(By the way that makes a great post – short impressive text and plenty of impressive pictures to say 1000 times more.)
Wow! Great work Wilkesteam! In the past years we too have enjoyed doing the same thing with bushels upon bushels of apples! I remember one of those times very distinctly – we had worked hard all day and were extremely tired. It was close to midnight, and as we were finally finishing up the clean-up process, someone very brilliant remembered that that was the night we had planned to sleep out on the front porch! We all (sleepily
) agreed that we still wanted to do it, so all eight of us kids ended up outside. Keep in mind – it was the beginning of December, so the temp. was only about 30 degrees! Though thoroughly bundled, we still got cold, but it was well worth the memories made!!! When we finally came inside the next morning, we checked and it was only 20 degrees!!! Brrrrrr! We were all refreshed, though, so the moral of the story is, after doing apples ALL DAY, you really, really ought to try sleeping outside!! 
It feels GREAT! 
Sounds delicious! Applesauce was the first thing I canned by myself. One thing I learned by experience the hard way(which may prove of benefit to others)is to make sure you don’t use really old lids. The seals can lose there elasticity over time. I used lids that must have been 10(?) years old. They all sealed. Then most of them became unsealed within a few days.
[...] fellowship squirmed in and out of apple sauce productions, mountain hiking, a visit to D.C., dinner tables, music , leaf raking, and hearing of salvation [...]