Got Peels and Cores?
My oldest is finishing up the Little House series, and currently is reading Farmer Boy
Today's reading included the apple harvest. We could relate to that. We've been picking and making sauce, apple butter, dried apples, sliced apples, and lots of apple goodies. It was interesting to note that Almanzo's family made some of the same things we do, though often they used a different process. One that usually involved a lot more physical labor.
After picking apples, they would sort them. The nice apples were kept, and the not so nice ones were sent to be made into cider. They made lots of things from the apples they kept, but what caught my attention was what they did with the scraps.
Everything must be saved, nothing wasted of all the summer's bounty. Even the apple cores were saved for making vinegar . . .And I've just been feeding them to the animals. Geesh, how wasteful I've been.
Really though, I've made blackberry vinegar before, and it was so easy, not to mention tasty. So, I'm thinking about giving cider vinegar a try. I checked in the The Little House Cookbook
. There is a great explanation and how to in there, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. It is a bit more involved than when I made blackberry vinegar.A Google search quickly led me to an Apple Cider Vinegar Recipe. There are two recipes there, one for whole apples and one for peels and cores. They both use the easier process I was looking for. (There is also a link from that site to an article that discusses the health benefits of apple cider vinegar. Very interesting.)
Since I made apple butter, dried apples, and an apple crisp yesterday, I have two containers of cores and peels sitting on my counter right now. They are getting all shriveled and brown. Perfect! Soon I will put them in a container with water. In a few months, with any luck, I will have some wonderful homemade apple cider vinegar.
Waste not. Want not. Besides my animals have eaten plenty of apples scraps already this summer!
9 comments:
I have eaten the whole bag of dried apple already.
This sounds like a great idea to try -- although I will have to buy cider vinegar before then, since we just ran out. :)
Please let us know how the apple cider vinegar goes! I really want to try this myself since good vinegar with "the mother" is expensive!
Thanks for all your great posts!
That sounds interesting! I've also used the peels and cores for apple jelly, then composted them after straining them out (lacking animals to eat them...my cats and dog declined :) ).
good idea.. but what can I do with tomato peels?
great post!! my hubby drinks apple cider vinegar every day - it would be so cool - and frugal! - to make our own!
I read in an Amish cookbook that when peeling apples to make applesauce and apple butter, they saved the peels -- and cooked them into juice to make apple jelly. Now THAT'S frugal!
I had enough apples left from my apple butter making experiment -- and thanks again for the idea, Stephanie -- to make three quarts of applesauce. Now I'm on the lookout for another source of free or cheap apples. Here's hoping.
Well some of the peels and cores are stinking up my kitchen now on their way to vinegar. If I remember right from the blackberries the smell doesn't last too long. I will let you know how it turns out! :)
Donna
I think I'd rather make the vinegar. I'm not a fan of jelly making, but I have to say I've only tried jelly once.
I've peeled and cored so many pieces of fruit in the last few months that I've had to replace my melon baller! Hands down, it has been essential in speeding things up though ( http://www.howtome.com/?p=30 ) How do you peel and core your apples?
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