favorite things :: homemade applesauce and worms

For as long as I can remember, my grandma Gaye has made the world's best applesauce. For many years during apple season, she and my grandpa would churn apples by the bushel, packing their freezer and many of their kids' freezers with gallons of homemade applesauce. Even today when I pop in to see my grandma, she is ready to greet us with a dish of freshly made sauce.

I am proud to say that for the past decade, when apple season rolls around, I happily churn out sauce of my own. (Usually by the half peck, not the bushel!)

I use my grandma's not-so-secret recipe - just plain old apples: core, skin and all. I have never seen a recipe like this in any cookbook or magazine. Most saucing recipes require coring and peeling. But I swear this is what leaves other sauces lacking - in taste and nutrition. My grandma's process takes a bit of elbow grease (as my many cousins who have processed bushels with her will attest) but it is totally worth the effort. Here's what you do:

1. Wash and half about 8-10 apples. Cortland are my favorite. Jonathan are also good. Any apple that cooks up soft will work but you want one with good flavor.

2. Cut out top and bottom part of the stem of each half and put the apples in a big pot. Cover with about 1/4 inch of water (enough to just cover the bottom of the pan), put on the lid and simmer over medium-low heat on the stovetop.

3. After about half hour or less, the apples will be mushy. Turn off the heat. According to my grandma, the nutrients escape in the steam, so don't lift the lid of the pot until it's cooled (if you can help it). The scent is SO incredible, it's hard to resist.

4. When cool, scoop about 1/3 of the apples into a sieve (like the one shown below, which you can usually find at a local hardware store) and mash/churn/press the apples through the sieve with the wooden stick thing (also shown below). Use a rubber spatula to scoop the skins and seeds out of the sieve and process the rest of the apples (using everything that's in the pan).

Although so little of the apple is wasted in the end, it is still kind of hard to toss the mash of skin and seeds. It's so deliciously fragrant and when you've effectively sauced the rest of the apples so well, well, you hate to see anything go.

This week, for the first time, our apple skins and seeds were eaten! Not by us but by our worms. Thanks to my friend Megan, we have started worm composting in the basement. Every week we feed our worms our fruit and vegetable scraps and in a couple months they will reward us with "black gold" - the most nutrient-rich soil possible. Liam loves to feed the worms and even I find it pretty incredible to see how they plow through our garbage so quickly, leaving all the dark, fertile castings behind. I imagine they must have thought they had died and gone to heaven when we buried that sweet apple mash for them last night.

Once we plant an apple tree in our backyard, our cycle of life will be complete. On my dream farm, I definitely will do this. In the meantime, I just thank God I was blessed enough to learn from a farmgirl. Thanks, Gaye.