Pie Pumpkins

Dad raised pie pumpkins this year, so encouraged by a recipe entitled Mrs. Sigg's Fresh Pumpkin Pie complete with instructions on how to start with a raw pumpkin instead of opening a can - I took up the challenge. I first did the complete process from start to finish - the pie was yummy - so then I attacked every pumpkin I could round up - 12 in all! I cut each in half - scooped out the seeds (roasted some of them) and then baked the hollowed out pumpkins, cut side down at 300 for 45 minutes - it smelled heavenly - really!

Then I let them cool enough to handle, slipped off the peelings, and put them through the food processor. I ended up with 52 cups of pureed pumpkin!! the equivalent of 26 cans - all in my freezer. Imagine that! I've since made

Gingerbread Pumpkin Bars, Easy Pumpkin Dessert Bars, and yesterday I made a

Pumpkin Citrus Bundt Cake - good stuff! I always love to bake in the fall and winter.

Apple Day!

Our kind neighbors, Steve and Lindsay Tudor, let us pick up drops for free - so Ivy , Daisy, Dad, and I spent about an hour and this is how many we got plus one more laundry basket full. Yummy, sweet Liberty apples! We covered them all with a quilt to keep them from freezing at night and in a few days Ivy and I started in on them - It took us 2 days to process them all.

It was a big job, but fun working together - Daisy got in on some of the action too! :)

We cooked the apples on Ivy's woodstove

then ran them through the foodmill, seasoned the hot applesauce with cinnamon, nutmeg, pure vanilla, and a pinch of salt - (these apples were so sweet, we left most of it unsweetened), put it all into hot jars and processed them on the gas range. We couldn't resist sweetening a few batches with brown sugar though. It was really a pretty efficient process once we got our system down.

We ended up with 109 jars of applesauce!! Now that should get us through the winter, don't you think??