The Applesauce Factory

Every summer, for a day or so, our home transforms into an applesauce factory. I didn't realize this until this summer, when Trevor informed me that when he has children, he'll be able to tell them he worked in an applesauce factory. As his mother, I'm happy I could supply this opportunity for him. I'm sure it will look well on a future resume. :-)

Since a factory is always a fascinating place, I thought I would give you a brief tour of our little operation.
Here is a sample of the raw materials. This year, most of our product was supplied from our very own yard. Our trees were full, and somehow the worms didn't find most of them. It was a lovely crop. We did have a few supplied from our friend's tree, but the lion's share were home-grown.







Here is the washing portion of the factory. Here my hard working employee is cleaning the apples in warm, soapy water before the next stage of the process. I particularly like his two-handed technique to really make sure all the apples are cleaned just right, ready to be transported to...







...the chopping block. Here another dutiful worker is quartering the apples. You may notice the peels and cores are still intact. I do try to make things easy on my employees, and this is just one way to lighten their load.








Step 4 entails boiling until the apples are just soft enough to grind up. It doesn't take long, and then the apples are ready to move on.









The final step in our factory is a two-man job. You can see that for the most part, my employees are happy to be employed. The apples are spooned into the hopper and then pressed through the handy-dandy kitchen aid attachment, no fancy name necessary, and out comes the delicious applesauce. A little additional sugar makes it not too tart, not too sweet.

The applesauce is then sealed into freezer bags, a la seal-a-meal, and frozen for later use. Voila!!!


You can see the applesauce factory is an efficient way to use the bounty of nature. I think I can speak for all the staff from my applesauce factory when I say, we don't love making the applesauce, but we really love eating it.

Don't be a Ditz - Vote for Rietz

Amber for Sophomore Vice President

Vote Rietz

Don't Vote for Pedro - Vote for Amber Rietz for VP

These are just a few of the clever and effective slogans that Amber used to get the word out that she is the girl for Sophomore V.P. The posters, made by Kristin (mostly) and Amber (some), as well as a very original speech (more on that in a minute) convinced her fellow classmates to make the right choice.

So what was the original speech you ask? Imagine a hearing a rainstorm in the auditorium, this provided by the audience, an umbrella and a pair of rain boots. Now imagine the candidate, umbrella open, puddle jumping on the stage. (Original doesn't even do it justice. ) Needless to say, the voters saw a winner and voted accordingly.

Amber is ready to serve her constituents to the best of her ability. She didn't disappoint the next day - it rained and she showed up in, what else, her rain boots!

CONGRATS!!! WE ARE EXCITED FOR YOU!