Johnny Appleseed, for various reasons, has a holiday set aside for him on two different days. One of those days is in March and the other date is September 26th. Our family has made the decision to recognize September 26th as Johnny Appleseed day because it is his birthday, because September is a time to start picking and preserving apples in our little valley, because we like apples and because it seemed like a fun thing to celebrate.

Apples

Through the generosity of some friends we had the opportunity, a few weeks ago, to go and pick apples at an apple orchard. The apples were ripe and beautiful and we did not actually need to pick them off the tree, the apples were just itching to fall off the tree so we did a lot of picking them off the ground. We did try putting ground cloths down on the ground and shaking the trees to get the apples off, which worked really well and we cleared a tree in just a few minutes. Most of the apples came from the ground though and they were wonderful.

Next came the step of preserving the apples. Apples are awesome, there are tons of ways to preserve them. Our first thought was to dry some and to make applesauce. We dried some apples and we made a bunch of applesauce which we like a lot. We especially like eating applesauce with our home grown pork chops. I had never had pork chops and applesauce until, as a kid, I saw Peter Brady imitating Bogart saying “pork chaawpsh, and apple shaush”. I remember asking my mom if we could have that for dinner, and ever since it is hard to eat them separately.

We had a lot more apples and decided that we would make apple butter. I thought that sounded great, I like apples and I like butter so apple butter would be awesome. It is awesome, but let me pass on something I learned. Apple butter has no butter in it. I was shocked! Honey butter has honey in it, but not apple butter. Apparently the term “butter” refers to the thick, soft consistency. Now that I think about it this also explains peanut butter. Besides, I can always butter the bread before putting on the apple butter.

With still more apples left I thought apple jelly would be good. On the rare occasions that I have had breakfast in restaurants I like to put apple jelly on the buttered toast that is brought out with the breakfast. We found a recipe on the internet for apple jelly and decided to give it a try.

With some hot bread, butter, apple butter, apple jelly and applesauce and a little help from Disney’s American Legends our Johnny Appleseed celebration is complete. We can enjoy a show loosely based on the man who was an American legend in his own time, and enjoy the products of the fruit he championed. The family thinks that next year for Johnny Appleseed day we should have apple pie, and apple cake and that we should plant an apple tree. I think Johnny Appleseed would approve of that.