Canning wormy apples??

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Okay I admit I'm new at this sort of thing so I just wanted your advice...

I have 3 dwarf apple trees with LOADS of apples--and lots of worms in them!! (tried the milk jug--banana peel thing--didn't seem to keep many away) I've been using them to make apple crisp, etc, just cutting out the bad parts (and haven't died yet, ha!) I would like to make some applesauce to can BUT...my Ball book says only use "perfect, unblemished fruit." Well, in a perfect world, yeah, but I hate to see all these go to waste. So my question is, can I can these apples if I cut out the bad spots?? Am I gonna kill us all or what??

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2001

Answers

Cass, when you gonna try making the applesauce? You can borrow my Victorio strainer if you want; I won't need it 'til mid to late Sept. When I do mine, I just quarter them, cut out critters and yuck, steam gently in a big pot over med heat til sorta soft; then run through the Victorio. It runs the applesauce down a chute and spits the peels and stems and seeds out the other side - soooooo easy! Or, if you want, you can load up the apples and come on over and we'll mess up my kitchen!! May just use the Victorio on the porch and hose everything down later! Give me a holler about when you want to get them done.

(PS - you won't kill anyone, after all - all those worms been eating is apples!!)

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2001


Hey Cass, in a perfect world maybe there wouldn't be worms in our apples...... ;>). I have been making applesauce from my HIGHLY blemished apples for years and we are all well and happy. I just cut out the bad spots, cook up a big kettle full and then put them through the strainer, add some redhots for flavor and color, fill to 1/2 inch from the top of the jar and water bath. Wonderful apple sauce all year long. We also use them for apple cider, which I process to seal and we use all winter.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2001

Yah, Cass, me too , just like Polly, them worm holes just get cut out, whats left, makes prime applesauce!

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2001

There is no such thing as a perfect Yellow Transparent apple, all deformed, bruised, and wormy spots, but, they make the best sauce! So I sit for hours and cut out the bad spots and cook 'em up and can them, the most divine sauce on Earth! This is the "private stock" stuff that is never given away at holiday time, for private home consumption only!

The worms have been thoroughly cooked, what is the problem? :-)

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2001


Hey, where is David when we need him? According to my readings, cider was traditionally made with a hunk of meat in the cask. So make cider and let the worms be the "meat"! :-D Okay, you can all quit barfing now!

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2001


Does anyone know if the strainer that they sell over on the Lehman's website is a Victorio? It looks like one from the picture but they don't give a brand name.

I won the doorprize at the Pampered Chef party tonight which was a $25 gift certificate, so I ordered the apple peeler/corer/slicer thingy.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2001


Hang in there girls!!!!I've picked up 2 victorio strainers at yard sales for 2 or 3 bucks.One is called a squeezo brand though and works the same.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

I think that bit about 'unblemished' fruit is because so many people today can't deal with the slightest little odd=bit to their provender. Go ahead, cut out the bad bits, and cook the rest. I do it all the time with apple pies, and I've won first prize at the County Fair with them.

Some of my cousins came up this week and brought along their kids. I've never been on the same wavelength with that part of the family to start with, but their kids (about 10 and 9) were out looking at my garden, thought that it was for the purpose of running up and down the paths and observed that my 'flowers' weren't doing very well, compared to their mom's garden. I explained that it was a vegetable garden, that I just put in flowers here and there for the heck of it (didn't go into companion planting!), and the 9 year old said "You EAT things that grow in the DIRT?!?!?!" The 10 year old said "Well, they WASH it off first!" 9 year old wasn't very convinced, what kind of people would eat something that grew in 'dirt'!!!?

I think those wormy apples would be just fine -- after all, the worms thought they were tasty!

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001


Ah Julie thats too funny about those kids being surprized that you ate stuff that grew in the dirt! Reminds me of the time that a teenager was over while I was picking berries and he exclaimed, "theres bugs on em!" Boy was he in for it! and another time a neice freaked out because I keep spiders on my porch, {they catch bugs for heavens sake!}

Hey does anybody else make hot applesause like I do, the kids like it with just cinnimon and suger but for hubby and me I make applesause with some cinnimon Oil in it. YOu know the kind that you can buy to make glass candy with. Sure is good, you gotta try it!

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001


My mother used our old wormy apples for years in everything from crisp , pies, fried apples, and even apple jelly. I am still here and using the same old apples on my family. I think they must be the best ones if the worms chose them too. Hi Cass. Phyllis

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001


Well if your theory is true Phyllis then I must have the best darn apple trees in the county! Thanks loads everyone. I didn't think it would hurt but you know how the canning books try to scare you silly about botulism and so on. I guess if we only used perfect, unblemished fruits and veggies nothing would ever get canned--or eaten for that matter.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

Oh, and hey Teri--I wanna go to the rummage sales YOU go to!! I've looked for years for a Victorio strainer and a Vita-Mix and the apple peeler thingy. I did finally find a dehydrator. Boy, I'd be knocking down old ladies for a Victorio... =)

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

You mean there are apples that grow without worms in them?!! We have coddling moths out here...nothing more gross than opening up a nice big juicy apple to find their nasty brown mess inside. However, I just cut around it and use the apples anyway! The chickens get the stuff I don't use...and hey, they don't seem to mind the bugs one bit!

My nephew visits sometimes and whenever I hand him stuff (berries, esp.) he really squirms a bit before he'll eat them. We have a faucet close by the garden, so sometimes I'll rinse them off. Sometimes he'll eat them after I clean them up (although they're never dirty!) I have found stuff that we picked just sitting somewhere rotting away, after he discards it when I'm not looking. Clearly there's a lot of education (or DE-education) that needs to be done when a ten-year-old kid can't eat fresh-from-the-garden produce! As a kid in the fifties, and with my parent's WWII rationing fresh in their minds, turning away food would have been unthinkable...especially fresh. Guess some kids really grow up differently these days...

Mr. S and I went hiking this past week....up in the high country where the wild huckleberries are ripe. My husband couldn't stop eating them! Guess he wasn't too afraid of anything (except for the bears...and we were making a LOT of noise on their behalf!) No place to wash those berries up..just wash 'em down...

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001


Up north, where Julie still lives, and we both grew up, there were lots of raspberries and blackberries growing wild. My grandpa, who was always out in the woods, always knew where they were. He'd either take us, or tell mom where they were. I remember picking raspberries with all of them, I was fairly young, picking a big fat juicy one intended for my mouth instead of the bucket. YOW! Wiggly green worm, headed for my mouth! I screamed and dropped it. Mom (the city girl) came over to find out what was wrong, picked up the dropped berry, shook out the worm, and tossed the berry into the bucket. She said, just look at it before you put it in your mouth and knock off anything that's on it.

I gotta hand it to mom -- she came from a city life (though her father grew a lot of food and they worked in the gardens too) to the northwoods when it was still rather raw. She casually picked up bugs and worms and refused to be terrorized by the (harmless) snakes my brother insisted on bringing home. She let us keep toads, frogs, and turtles. Her attitude really taught me not to be squeamy about things. Nowdays, she tells me she really had to grit her teeth over some of them. Somehow, I didn't notice that as soon as we were able to do the "dirty work" of picking up the creepy-crawlies, she always got us to do it! :-)

Wow, sorry for the severe thread drift!

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001


I guess I'll drift thread now in another direction....

Have you tried the red sphere traps on your apple trees? We don't have a lot of insect problems compared to other parts of the country, but I put up the red sphere traps on my trees, along with a biological scent lure on each, and caught a lot of bugs that way, the apples were about 99.9% worm free. In order to not have a big clean- up of the traps at the end of the year, I put Saran Wrap over them, gathered it up around the 'neck' of each one hanging from the tree and tied it with a twist-tie, then smeared the plastic wrap over with Tree Tanglefoot. At the end of the year, I took the twist=ties off, folded the plastic with all the sticky stuff and dead bugs inside and threw them away, put away the nice clean red spheres for the next year.

Worked pretty good.

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2001



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