An apple-y weekend

My Saturday was kind of just all about apples, fresh Autumn apples, picked on Friday from a friends tree. We went to pick feijoas, and came back with apples too. Two trees tucked down the back of the garden, covered with apples, the birds and wasps and codling moths were having a sweet Autumn appley feast down there in the back of the garden, so we picked them all, before they were all gobbled up (sorry little critters).
So Saturday morning, I gathered up my supplies and set myself up outside in the glorious Autumn sunshine and peeled and peeled and sliced and sliced. Until my fingers were stained brown and sore. I peeled and sliced and watched the kids run around, and the kids watched me and stole pieces of apple, and picked up the dropped apple peels and filled the trike trailer with them and took them for rides around the deck.
It was quite monotonous, but also very enjoyable, and kind of therapeutic, in the sunshine and the fresh air with the sweet smell of apples and sticky appley fingers, and the thought of jars filled and sealed and stored away.
I was trying a new method, jars of sliced apples, rather than stewed as I've always done in the past. It didn't quite turn out as planned. Hmm, nevermind, might just have to get a little more advice on that one for next time! But fortunately it was salvageable, and fortuntately I had that tray underneath to catch it all. I just scooped up all those apple bits and pieces and strained off most the liquid and threw them in a pot and we ended up with stewed apples after all, we just took the scenic route. And the bonus with the scenic route was that we ended up with two big bottles of sweet appley juice, which is being devoured quite quickly.
So that was pretty much my whole Saturday, what with peeling and peeling and slicing and slicing and cleaning jars and re-cleaning jars etc etc. But I did have time at the end of the day to make use of those delicious Autumn apples just once more, in an apple and feijoa pie, with the fabulous Smitten Kitchen pastry once again, that pastry just makes me want to make pies. And yes, once again, it was gobbled up too quickly to get a photo of the finished thing, we invited Aaron's brother and family over to help with the gobbling, so we didn't make complete piglets of ourselves. I think this will not be the last apple pie to be made before the apple season ends.