Time for Apple Butter!

In November, one of my sister's and I had a get-away to New Hampshire.  I love New Hampshire!

Here is a photo from a rest area we stopped at.  So pretty!

My sister wanted to go to this apple orchard for apples.  This is the thing that they pour apples into for pressing into apple cider.

And here are some crates of smooshed apple remains from making cider. I had never seen this before - so interesting!  And a pungent smell, not in a bad, rotten way, but in an overripe apple kind of way.

They had lots of tractors!  Here is just one of them!

Grocery stores tend to sell only the "most popular" apples.  Scientists are constantly messing with them trying to get the "perfect" apple for mainstream buyers.  But at a farm, you can get many different varieties.  Not sure what a new to you variety tastes like?  No problem, the farm has a little tasting area!

And should there be no one handy to take your cash, you can use the self-service station and write down what you bought.  When was the last time you saw something like this?  I have to say though, after a few minutes in the barn full of apples, a very nice person came along and we all had a good chat!  She said that we could walk up into the orchard to take photos too.  Anyway, I talked my sister into buying this JUMBO bag of apples.  I talked her right into making apple butter for Christmas presents.  We had to make a quick stop at a store to buy canning jars.  You can buy canning jars or anything else that Amazon sells using my links over to the right or at the end of this post!
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We made the apple butter in a crock pot.  So yummy!  You can Google crock pot butter and I am sure a number of recipes will come up.  The only thing - my sister did not have an apple peeler!  
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I know, I know - my sisters are always laughing at all my kitchen gadgets, but they get the job done so much faster!  Anyway - we got all those apples peeled and made apple butter but my sister's family ended up loving it so much that I don't think that there was any left out of this batch for Christmas gifting!  We love apple butter.  Mmmm Mmmm good!  And so easy to make in the crock pot too!
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So, on this dark winter's evening, here I am - remembering what a fun day we had in November with our apple butter project!