Apple Jelly – Not so much

I forgot to update this.  We ended up not going to Chillicothe, as predicted.  In fact, we ended up doing not much of anything.

[Okay, I am TRYING to put pictures in this....maybe check back later?]

ETA:  This all took place July 4 and 5th.

I did indeed wash and core the apples from our tree. The tiny little apples.  I had read somewhere that the underdeveloped seeds were potentially poisonous, so I wanted to make sure I got those out.  I only read it in one place, but that’s not the kind of thing you want to make a mistake with.  This was a fairly tedious and annoying job.  I also discarded any that looked wormy, even if there was no wormy evidence.

I was reminded that sometimes when Janet says “Yes, I will help you,” what she really means is she will wander down to occasionally supervise.  That was what today was.  No worries. I muddled through until most of the remaining apples from our yard were ones that were incredibly tiny.  The heck with that.  I turned to the store-bought Fujis I bought in case that wasn’t enough.  I left about six of those for eating purposes.  Into the pot it all went and, after boiling, I set it up to strain overnight.

Now…I am not big on buying things for projects.  When it comes to canning, I do not have special jar removers and what not.  I use metal tongs and nearly every towel and potholder in the house, but those are all free, having been paid for long ago.  So I didn’t get a fancy stand for the cheesecloth (which I did get).  I ended up having to rig something up with the cheesecloth and a few kabob spears I have laying around.  They come in packets of like a million.

The next morning I woke up, eager to see my gallons of juice that would be turned into awesome apple jelly and that would then be turned into Giftmas presents.  I went to the pot, removed the lid and plastic (to protect it from the fruit flies, who had resisted at that point all efforts to wipe them out), and looked.  A lot.  I tipped the pot and was instantly disappointed.  When I measured it out, I had BARELY a cup of apple juice.  

This was not good.  I needed more than that.  I looked at the jars and lids I had purchased at the store and just sighed.  I poured it into a glass jar and threw it into the freezer.  There are still some apples out there, so maybe we’ll try it again later….

In the meantime, there is likely some message in this.  I could have finished up even with the small apples, despite the growing hump in my neck. I could have used all the apples I bought.  All sorts of things.  Put into it what you get out of it, and all that.  Fine.