Once I had the dehydrator loaded with apples I walked out to see what the girls were doing, read my book, or just starred off into space (if you didn’t know-staring off into space is medicine for the soul)
In between my apple drying cycles I let all the peelings and cores pile up in a giant pot.
I washed the cores and peelings in cold water and put them back in the giant pot with water.
I got Papaw or The Deer Hunter to light the coleman stove for me and I cooked the peelings for about an hour making sure the water didn’t evaporate.
I poured the apples through a colander into another big pot. I used the back of a metal spoon to squeeze all of the juice out of the peelings before discarding them.
I let the juice cool completely, then poured it into clean gallon jugs. I had enough to fill two. By the time I got to this point in my apple project our trip to Deer Camp was almost over. I put the juice in the frig until the next day when it was time to head for home.
I kept the juice chilled until a few days later when I had time to make apple jelly.
I’ve read apple juice has enough pectin in it to jell the sugar when you make jelly, but I didn’t want to chance it so I used store bought pectin.
To make apple jelly: combine pectin and 5 cups of apple juice in a large pot over medium high heat and bring mixture to a full rolling boil. Add 7 cups of sugar-stirring to combine.
Bring mixture to a full rolling boil and boil for one minute. Pour hot jelly into sterilized jars and seal.
According to Chitter-it’s the best apple jelly EVER! Getting dried apples and jelly out of my apples makes me very happy.
Tipper
Best jelly I remember would have to be from the wild crabapples that grew on the farm, on a hot biscuit, to die for with fresh cold cow salve and milk.
Speaking of “not wasting anything” reminds me of many, many years ago.
My aunt got married late in the spring and moved into a house near my grandparents. It was too late to find certified potato seed, and most of the potatoes from the previous year were gone. So, my grandmother saved her potato peels for a few days and my aunt planted them. They had a great crop that year. Great idea for today instead of paying for seed potatoes.
Our Great-Gran made the most wonderful jellies. She made what she called “Tomato Butter” from tomatoes that was delicate and tasted like a cross between apple and peach jelly that was my favorite on butter bread. After she passed, our dad tried to make it, but it always turned out like strong molasses, not light and delicate at all. Our Great-Aunt Betty said the trick was to keep the fire as low as it would go, which he tried, but it never did work out. Wish I could eat sweet things such as this, but diabetes keeps me from doing so nowadays. I wonder if this would work out with Splenda.
God bless.
RB
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BJ-I want to make a stack cake-if I dont eat them all first LOL : )
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
What are u going to do with your dried apples?
I’m sure the jelly is really good, I love Apple jelly but I
didn’t realize it had so much
sugar in it, 5 cups of apple juice
with 7 cups of sugar, that’s more
than a cup of sugar per cup of
juice. Guess you can tell I’ve
never made any but I would love
to try sometime.
My mama did that with the peelings and it was so good.. You just made me so hungry for jelly and biscuits.
I am so proud of you.
Yum – I’m with Chitter – homemade apple jelly IS the best! I’d love to hear more about Belva’s corn cob jelly, though. Haven’t heard of that before!
Laurie- 1 box : )
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
How much pectin to 5 cups of juice?
I do the same to peach peels.
Tipper,
You certainly have a lot of spunk!
One of the things I admire about
you is creativity, always making
something. My favorite jelly is
Grape, the wilder the better. I use to go with dad along the
Nantahala and help gather wild
grapes, and they didn’t all have to be ripe, making the jelly real
tart. Along with Chocolate gravy,
that’s what kept me alive in my
High School Years at Andrews…Ken
i have always made jelly from apples ,i also used peach peelings and it turned out just as good
if i dont have apples handy i just use bottled juice.it works the same (goes for grape juice ) etc
Ahhh! Now I know what you were doing with the peelings. Gosh! You sure know how to get the most out of your produce. I have done very little canning and never realized how much of the apple is usable. This was a great lesson!
Thanks for a great post today and usually every day!
Tipper,
My Mother never threw the peels away or the cores, unless of course they were bruised…In later years she got real weary of the sprays used in the orchards, and quit using peels. She would only use them if the apples were from a tree known not to be sprayed with DDT…of course to her everything was DDT…and it was banned years ago, I think…
Loved this post…
You are like a lot of folks I know…you were supposed to be relaxing at the deer camp…and doing what you like to do in your free time…!!!! That tells me you love canning and making things for your family and to you it is mostly your relaxing hobby.
When we go on a short trip, I too fill up my bags with things I love to do..Just in case I have free time from my vacation of resting to do what I do that really does relax me….
Does that make sense??
Getting your thoughts organized by starring into space is a good thing. My stay in such a jumble, that it would take weeks of silent space starring to get them in the proper place…I think some folks just have to have a jumbled brain to create…don’t you think???
Thanks Tipper again I love your posts….
Yum, apple jelly is my favorite! This honors the age-old tradition of wasting nothing, and carries me back to grandma’s kitchen, helping her and Mom process fruits and vegetables for canning. What I wouldn’t give to spend another day in that kitchen.
Tipper
Apple jelly is the base for pepper jelly just swap one cup of apple for pepper juice. Just boil a cup of peppers with enough water to cover and 5 drops of red food coloring. Strain add about 1 tsp of crushed red peppers then add to apple juice. Really nice with cream cheese and crackers. The hotter the peppers the hotter the jelly.
Apple jelly is my favorite. I sure hope the apples produce better this year than they did last year. To avoid starring into space too much today, I have some frozen grapes that just might be jelly before the day is over. They were supposed to be for homemade wine, but making it seemed like way too much work.
It is a wonderful thing you do, keeping the basic homemaking skills alive, we are in the midst of celebrating Pioneer Days,’Back to Basics’ here, everything from homemade musical instruments to gardening. It is amazing what we have lost.
Great photos, Tipper! I’ve done this before too, and also made vinegar from the mash left after we made cider. Country people don’t let much go to waste 🙂 Just last week I posted about making jam with orange peels and crushed pineapple. I wonder if it’s possible to candy apple peel like lemon and orange peel? I bet it would be good.
Mighty fine Tipper! Don’t you love using the whole fruit.
Sometimes in the summer when there is lots of fruit I take all the peels and extra’s and cook them to make mixed juice to drink, then can it. That might include apples, grapes, blueberries, pears, peaches, and whatever else is handy.
I know that folks used to extract the pectin from apples to make jams and jellies but I’ve never done it nor have I seen it done. I think that was even before my time.
Starring into space is a very healthy thing to do. It gives the brain time to catch up. There is so much stuff in the world now I think our brain’s are constantly on overload. It keeps your creative juices flowing!
Love apple jelly! My mother used to do the same thing Tipper. She didn’t believe in wasting anything. She even made jelly out of the corn cobs when she put up corn. We had every kind of jelly and preserves that one could think of. She also would can blackberry juice to have on hand for sickness. It was great for the occasional stomach viruses and flu. She also would make apple jelly and put put those red hot cinnamon candies in while cooking the juice and strain them out. It tasted so good on buttered toast. I am going to have to buy some apples and try to make me some. LOL.
I make this but I make my jalapeno jelly with this..I sell it at market and they love it!
I did this summer before the last one. I put our apples in the freezer. We finally bought a dehydrator this past fall. Unfortunately our little family prefers grape jelly, but family and friends enjoyed the apple jelly. Your posts are enjoyable reading. Have a wonderful day from middle TN.
Sounds good,, I’ve always been crazy about jelly and biscuits,, our problem with the dehydrator is we eat the apples as fast as we dry’em and we’ve got one that has 6 trays,, guess we need to tie our selves to the trees till we get a bunch dried..
Tipper – I am always amazed by your photos; you have a good camera. That Georgia blue sky you mentioned earlier looks like one of Monet’s paintings. Great!!!