Every Christmas my husband makes his mother's Christmas cookies with our Alabama grandchildren. It's a tradition that started about 11 years ago when our granddaughter was 4 and our grandson was seven. During COVID when we couldn't travel to them from Virginia they insisted on making the cookies on Zoom.
It is his way of making memories with the grandchildren. His mother had destroyed the written records when she had Alzheimer 's and he had to get bits and pieces of the recipes from the friends and family that she had told the recipe to. It was a labor of love.
My job, like yours, is the photograph the yearly event.
My Polish grandma made thee best apple🍎pie. Not just on holidays either. Monday through Friday, entering home at 3:30 pm sharp, my grandpa would immediately devour dessert. ALWAYS dessert first. I remember some of her pie recipe. I know she liked northern spy apples best.
I found your mention of the Red Wagon ( with that great photo) very memory provoking. As a child, my Godfather, made wooden wagons, painted red, of course, for both my brother and myself. That is over 65 years ago and I have no idea whatever happened to them. But I do know, we were both amazed to have something so spectacular!!! to run around with. Larry Sears, El Paso, Texas. And, oh yes, thanks for reminding me that, even in this summer's awful heat, Fall may actually come.
My Ohio parents made applesauce every year. The grandkids loved it. One tried talking TSA into letting her through Security with a frozen quart of Grandma's applesauce back to Seattle (ahhh,NO).
My mom died on September 30. After her funeral etc.,we went home and Grandpa led everyone in making applesauce in Grandma's kitchen one last time.
The pictures of that shine with love. For her, for him, for family, for getting to have those memories.
My mother always made applesauce with Red Hots. After everything was cooked without sugar and then cooled, she’d put the apples in the blender (several batches) and add the Red Hots before flipping the switch. It was applesauce with a sweet kick. My mother didn’t particularly enjoy cooking; she called it “keeping body and soul together”. But she was a pretty good cook and in the lean years the Red Hot Applesauce was a real treat. I’d completely forgotten about it until I read this column tonight. I may have to give it a whirl one of these days. Thanks for bringing it back to me.
I grew up on a dairy farm in Maryland. When my mom was growing up they had Guernseys, but by the time I was born, they had been replaced with Holsteins. I loved how Guernseys looked and wanted one so bad to show at the fair, but never got one.
So yes, I know that there is a difference between Guernseys and Holsteins 😆
My mom had a Foley food mill and used it only for making applesauce. For some reason when I started making my own, I preferred leaving the peels on and having chunky applesauce. I don’t know where that food mill went when we emptied the kitchen after dad died. Maybe my sister took it. Now I’d really like to see it, just once more!
Uncle Ralph had guernseys and jerseys and a few Holsteins. It was the father of a friend who told me how to convince the "tourists" they were "Dotted Swiss."
As the daughter of a Guernsey dairyman...one of the few in our county that had mainly Holsteins and a few Jerseys, I TOTALLY understand Sherrod’s feeling about the difference. Once, a neighbor’s 6-7 year old daughter shared our evening meal. A glass of milk was an obligatory part of supper...Dixie took one drink of that rich, raw, cold Guernsey milk and said it was the best milk she’d ever had...could she call her mom/dad and tell them how delicious it was. With my dad grinning from ear to ear, my mother “rang up” her family, Dixie extolled the deliciousness of the milk, said good night and we finished supper. The reason for my dad’s expression of delight...Dixie’s dad was a Holstein dairy farmer. I remember that night as if it was yesterday! Having a herd of Guernseys in a county populated with Holstein dairy farms was like wearing a brown shoe in a room of tuxedos!
I still have my mother’s Foley apple ricer...nothing better than fresh homemade applesauce! Thank you for the wonderful memories...and tell Sherrod I’ll share my Guernsey dairy memorabilia with him anytime...sans any cow manure!
I love making homemade applesauce. I usually do several batches, different kinds per batch, but the first one is usually Paula Reds, as they’re fairly early. I try to do a batch of Ginger Golds too. Anything else depends on where we go to pick and what sounds (or tastes) good at the orchard.
I make applesauce almost every year. Usually I use a mix of apples, same as I do when I make an apple pie. Right now though I'm on vacation in Sonoma County, remembering when I was in college. Sonoma State was a small school then and there weren't enough dorm rooms for all of the students; besides, they were expensive. I lived out in the country where I could have an enormous garden. I'd swap what I had for what my friends might have. Several friends lived in funky old farmhouses in the middle of apple orchards. Gravenstein apples only stay hard and crisp for a brief time. They're best suited for juice or applesauce. Because they don't ship well they'd become commercially unfavorable, so there were acres and acres of untended orchards. Untended might mean a worm or some bird pecks, but it also meant organic - and free! Poor college students like me could pick all that we wanted. Being here brought back those memories - especially when we took a drive through the country and saw a hand-lettered sign nailed to a pole that said FREE GRAVS.
I'm going to go back and grab a bag or a box full to take home so I can make applesauce. Full of flavor and memories.
We have been making our own apple sauce for years. We use granny smith apples, peeled and quartered, in a pot with water and boiled. We leave many of the lumps in. No sugar. Doesn't need sugar. The best apple sauce ever. My mom and grandma's recipe.
I use my Foley mill for applesauce and some jams, and the "attach to the cutting board" upright grinder for zucchini relish and carrot salad...tools my mom used in the 50's that I still treasure and use today.
Every Christmas my husband makes his mother's Christmas cookies with our Alabama grandchildren. It's a tradition that started about 11 years ago when our granddaughter was 4 and our grandson was seven. During COVID when we couldn't travel to them from Virginia they insisted on making the cookies on Zoom.
It is his way of making memories with the grandchildren. His mother had destroyed the written records when she had Alzheimer 's and he had to get bits and pieces of the recipes from the friends and family that she had told the recipe to. It was a labor of love.
My job, like yours, is the photograph the yearly event.
Heading to Monroe’s Orchard in Hiram soon to get summa those Paula Reds to make freezer applesauce. I’m assuming that’s what you do with it, right?
My Polish grandma made thee best apple🍎pie. Not just on holidays either. Monday through Friday, entering home at 3:30 pm sharp, my grandpa would immediately devour dessert. ALWAYS dessert first. I remember some of her pie recipe. I know she liked northern spy apples best.
I found your mention of the Red Wagon ( with that great photo) very memory provoking. As a child, my Godfather, made wooden wagons, painted red, of course, for both my brother and myself. That is over 65 years ago and I have no idea whatever happened to them. But I do know, we were both amazed to have something so spectacular!!! to run around with. Larry Sears, El Paso, Texas. And, oh yes, thanks for reminding me that, even in this summer's awful heat, Fall may actually come.
My Ohio parents made applesauce every year. The grandkids loved it. One tried talking TSA into letting her through Security with a frozen quart of Grandma's applesauce back to Seattle (ahhh,NO).
My mom died on September 30. After her funeral etc.,we went home and Grandpa led everyone in making applesauce in Grandma's kitchen one last time.
The pictures of that shine with love. For her, for him, for family, for getting to have those memories.
My mother always made applesauce with Red Hots. After everything was cooked without sugar and then cooled, she’d put the apples in the blender (several batches) and add the Red Hots before flipping the switch. It was applesauce with a sweet kick. My mother didn’t particularly enjoy cooking; she called it “keeping body and soul together”. But she was a pretty good cook and in the lean years the Red Hot Applesauce was a real treat. I’d completely forgotten about it until I read this column tonight. I may have to give it a whirl one of these days. Thanks for bringing it back to me.
I grew up on a dairy farm in Maryland. When my mom was growing up they had Guernseys, but by the time I was born, they had been replaced with Holsteins. I loved how Guernseys looked and wanted one so bad to show at the fair, but never got one.
So yes, I know that there is a difference between Guernseys and Holsteins 😆
My mom had a Foley food mill and used it only for making applesauce. For some reason when I started making my own, I preferred leaving the peels on and having chunky applesauce. I don’t know where that food mill went when we emptied the kitchen after dad died. Maybe my sister took it. Now I’d really like to see it, just once more!
Uncle Ralph had guernseys and jerseys and a few Holsteins. It was the father of a friend who told me how to convince the "tourists" they were "Dotted Swiss."
As the daughter of a Guernsey dairyman...one of the few in our county that had mainly Holsteins and a few Jerseys, I TOTALLY understand Sherrod’s feeling about the difference. Once, a neighbor’s 6-7 year old daughter shared our evening meal. A glass of milk was an obligatory part of supper...Dixie took one drink of that rich, raw, cold Guernsey milk and said it was the best milk she’d ever had...could she call her mom/dad and tell them how delicious it was. With my dad grinning from ear to ear, my mother “rang up” her family, Dixie extolled the deliciousness of the milk, said good night and we finished supper. The reason for my dad’s expression of delight...Dixie’s dad was a Holstein dairy farmer. I remember that night as if it was yesterday! Having a herd of Guernseys in a county populated with Holstein dairy farms was like wearing a brown shoe in a room of tuxedos!
I still have my mother’s Foley apple ricer...nothing better than fresh homemade applesauce! Thank you for the wonderful memories...and tell Sherrod I’ll share my Guernsey dairy memorabilia with him anytime...sans any cow manure!
I look forward to your applesauce extravaganza every year. The forever cherished memories you and Sherrod are making.
I love making homemade applesauce. I usually do several batches, different kinds per batch, but the first one is usually Paula Reds, as they’re fairly early. I try to do a batch of Ginger Golds too. Anything else depends on where we go to pick and what sounds (or tastes) good at the orchard.
I make applesauce almost every year. Usually I use a mix of apples, same as I do when I make an apple pie. Right now though I'm on vacation in Sonoma County, remembering when I was in college. Sonoma State was a small school then and there weren't enough dorm rooms for all of the students; besides, they were expensive. I lived out in the country where I could have an enormous garden. I'd swap what I had for what my friends might have. Several friends lived in funky old farmhouses in the middle of apple orchards. Gravenstein apples only stay hard and crisp for a brief time. They're best suited for juice or applesauce. Because they don't ship well they'd become commercially unfavorable, so there were acres and acres of untended orchards. Untended might mean a worm or some bird pecks, but it also meant organic - and free! Poor college students like me could pick all that we wanted. Being here brought back those memories - especially when we took a drive through the country and saw a hand-lettered sign nailed to a pole that said FREE GRAVS.
I'm going to go back and grab a bag or a box full to take home so I can make applesauce. Full of flavor and memories.
We have been making our own apple sauce for years. We use granny smith apples, peeled and quartered, in a pot with water and boiled. We leave many of the lumps in. No sugar. Doesn't need sugar. The best apple sauce ever. My mom and grandma's recipe.
Oh, and I add a hint of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice to my applesauce!
I use my Foley mill for applesauce and some jams, and the "attach to the cutting board" upright grinder for zucchini relish and carrot salad...tools my mom used in the 50's that I still treasure and use today.