Over the years, we’ve hosted several workshops on food preservation. We’ve canned, dried, and pickled together, and we were long overdue to repeat one of our favorite workshops—making homemade applesauce. Prepackaged applesauce is incredibly popular in our neighborhood. Of course, homemade is even better.

There is an abundance of apples growing in our neighborhood orchards. Last month, a small group of home and community gardeners came together to make applesauce. Extra hands made for light work, and everyone got to take home homemade applesauce to use throughout the winter. We prefer to use slow cookers for ease, and once cooled, neighbors decided to freeze their extra applesauce.

Here’s the recipe that we used!

Applesauce Recipe
Ingredients
4 pounds apples
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Steps
1) Wash apples thoroughly.
2) Peel apples and cut them into approximately 1/2″ cubes.
3) Add apples, brown sugar, and spices to a slow cooker.
4) Combine water and lemon juice, and then, pour it over the apples.
5) Cover and seal the slow cooker.
6) Cook for 6 hours on low.