AAAAPPLE BUTTER PART 1.

Hip Hip Horray dudes! Yeah, autumn is here. That's right, and you know what the ultimate flavor of autumn is? APPLE BUTTER!!!!


This is a series on apple butter makin. We all know apple butter is a true country time food, and there is nothing better than making your own tasty ass apple butter, canning it, and then sharing with friends and family ( although I do tend to keep like 80% of what I make for myself, but I'm also a greedy gut). We will start today with the collecting of the apples. You are going to need a crap ton since when you cook apples they end up being reduced to hardly anything.

There are apple trees in the parking lot of my mother's work. No one does anything with them! So, for the past four or five years we've been sneaking out there at night and picking a bunch. This is kind of silly. First of all, she works there, so who is gonna bust us? Second, no one wants them! So we might as well take what we can and actually use them instead of them falling to the ground and rotting. It does make it fun to sneak around at night though. This year we went on a Saturday at 3pm. and just loaded up a paper shopping bag and a whole big purple tote bag full. The cars were staring but they are the suckers cause I gots some FREE FOOD!

So you need to get some apples. I got a bunch of tiny free ones and I'm stoked to use them. Another viable option is to go to your local farmers market and hit up some awesome deals there.
I am a fool and walked to the market today and decided to purchase more apples. These ones were to eat, I swear, but a half a peck is a heck of a lot to eat when a person is about to leave town. So now I have more apple butter apples.

Store your apples in a cool dry place until you are ready to begin processing them.

You can also scout out places in your neighborhood and offer to help them out by cleaning up their apples so they don't rot. It's a win-win situation. They don't have a stinking fermented mess in their yards, and you have free apples to turn into pure autumn gold.