Harvest & Apple Butter - they just go together!

You know, sometimes this blogging comes very easily & other times - not.  Why is that?  I've been thinking about this for days now, the blog, I mean, but just this morning I feel like sitting down & typing.  Weird . . .

Anyway, in Iowa the combines are rolling across the fields already - most farmers are taking out the corn first this year ahead of the soybeans because of the dry summer.  Yields are so, so - obviously not going to be a bumper crop in most of the midwest.  But, God is still good, we have a crop to harvest & we are thankful.

My garden is just starting to produce - it has been slow with the dryness & it just doesn't seem to matter how much we watered, it is not the same as a good rain.  Cherry tomatoes & peppers have done good, as you can see, but I am still waiting for enough large tomatoes for canning.  I had some nice cucumbers at one time, then the vines just dried up & died - poor things!

My dear friend Kay sent a jar of the best homemade apple butter with me this summer, so I'm sharing her recipe.  She makes it in the crockpot!

Crockpot Apple Butter - begin early in the morning
    Fill a standard size (3 or 4 qt.) crockpot with finely chopped apples, peeled & cored. 
    Stir together & add - 4 c. sugar, 4 t. cinnamon, 1/4 t. cloves & 1/4 t. salt
    Move the apples around in the crockpot to let the mixture sift down among the apples.
    Cover & cook 1 hour on High, then lower the heat & cook all day until the apples are dark.  12 hours or more.  (That is why she starts early in the morning!)
    Stir the mixture down once in a while.
    Boil small jars & lids with seals.  She used pint jars, but you could buy the smaller jam jars.  Fill the jars while they are hot & put the lids on; they will seal.  Also can be frozen.

Sounds so easy.  Guess I'll go make myself & piece of toast with apple butter & take a picture for you.  Doesn't it look delish!


Thanks so much for joining me today.  Have a great weekend.  The weather is beautiful & we have a wedding to go to; what a great day for a wedding!