SLOW-COOKING Fall Fruits

THESE EASY SLOW-COOKER RECIPES EXTEND YOUR FALL FRUIT HARVEST.

- BY KRISTINA LOTZ

While it can be difficult to say goodbye to the long days and warm sunshine of summer, fall brings with it one thing that homesteaders look forward to: fruit! From apples and pears to cranberries and pumpkins, the fall harvest gives us some of our favorites. There is nothing like biting into a fresh apple or pear right from our own tree. The question then becomes: What do we do with all this fruit?

Fall is a busy time for families. Besides balancing the farm work and our day jobs, kids are back in school, which means fall sports, dances and homework. Halloween comes up quickly too. With so much going on, and days getting shorter, it can be difficult to find time to preserve the fruits of our labor.

My mom’s favorite preservation recipe is making applesauce from Gravensteins, Chehalis and Jonathans (a very underrated apple that is just delicious by itself, in pies or as sauces). When she sold her farm, she left me with her food mill and applesauce recipe, which resulted in a great sauce but was very time-consuming.

Leave the peels on! Apple skins offer numerous health benefits due to their rich concentration of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

First, you must peel all the apples; then core and chop them up. Next, you needed to cook them over the stove while keeping an eye on it, stirring often, for hours. It takes all day to make a small amount of applesauce — no thanks, Mom! But what to do with my limited time so I didn't waste all my apples and pears? That's when I decided to modify the recipe, cut out some steps and use a slow cooker.

SLOW-COOKER SAUCES