Basements – the underbelly of disorganization
If you are fortunate enough to have a basement (with the low ground of the Eastern Shore, some of us don’t have that extra space) you probably store a lot of stuff there. A LOT of stuff. It is easy for the sub-home space to be cluttered because you don’t see it everyday (or more importantly, your mother-in-law doesn’t see it!)
Basement organizing offers a special challenge because most of the items in the basement were put there to get out of the way of your living space. Therefore, it is especially important when you tackle a basement that you be in the frame of mind to purge.
It is easier to organize the basement in areas – it makes it less likely you will become overwhelmed. Divide the basement into quadrants, either literally or figuratively. Go through each organizing step – gather, sort, categorize, and distribute, in that quadrant. Give extra attention to the categorizing step. This is where you decide whether to keep an item, throw it away, donate to charity, or save it for a yard sale. Be mindful of the axiom, “if I haven’t used it in a year, then I don’t need it.”
You may have to tackle the basement project twice, perhaps once in the spring and then again in the fall. That’s ok because you are still regaining control of your space.
Let’s Can Apples
by JR Coffey
The smell of cooking apples seem to say Fall. It is that smell and taste that we want to capture in the canning jar. I believe Fall is one of the busiest times in regard to canning and preserving. Many fruits are in during the Fall season, including grapes, apples, pears, plums and figs. Let’s get started canning!
The varieties of apples are endless. I prefer Golden Delicious to can for Baking, Ginger Gold for Apple Chutney, Winesaps, Grimes Golden or my favorite Northern Spy for applesauce and apple butter. The early apples such as Summer Rambo and Transparent are good for sauce and cooking as well. I use the same apples for pies as for sauce.
Apples for Baking
1 gallon apples, peeled and quartered
1 C. sugar
1 t. Fruit Fresh
Mix sugar and fruit fresh and sprinkle over apples. Cover and let stand overnight. Next morning, pack apples into clean jars, leaving ¾” headspace. Add hot water to juice left in container and dissolve sugar and divide liquid among the jars. Add more water to fill jars to within ¾” headspace. Wipe jar rims, seal and process (cold pack) 5 to 10 minutes in boiling water bath. Do half gallon jars 15 minutes. Do not process too long or they will turn to sauce instead. Golden Delicious are excellent canned this way.
A slight variation is to use 2 to 3 pounds sugar for a 5 gallon container of prepared apples. To serve, put your apples in a casserole dish. Sprinkle with about ¼ C. brown sugar and dot with about 1 or 2 T. butter. Bake at 300 degrees for 45 to 60 minute.
Apple Pie Filling
Please see Peach column for my pie filling to can recipe. Just add 1 T. ground cinnamon per double batch of glaze for each ½ bushel of apples. This will can 14 to 16 quarts each time. You could add some apple pie spice (1 to 2 t.) instead of or in addition to the cinnamon. Some also like about a teaspoon of vanilla as well in apple pie filling.
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