Holiday Gifts; you made it!

I've been busy, so I neglected my blog! I found I had a bushels of apples in the back room, and I needed to get something done with them. I had gotten 6 bushels in October for $6 per bushel, which is a great price, since in some stores they are $1.99 a pound and a bushel is 50 pounds (more or less). I've been using them up here and there as I had time, the bulk going into sauce and juice.
I made juice last year with my little Jack LaLane juicer...oh my gosh! What a hassle that was! I had to clean it out after about a pound of apples. The juice, though delicious, had to be filtered twice and it was just a messy business all around. So, I said "never again" until our own apples started giving a reliable harvest and we could get a cider press.
That lasted until we started drinking the juice! Everyone loved it and it is one way to get good, vitamin rich juice into the family. So I saw a steamer/juicer at Lehman's that has been reccommended to me and I ordered it early in the summer.
http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen___Juice_and_Beverage_Making___Steamers___8_1_4_Qt_Stainless_Steel_Steam_Juicer___1152245#1152245 I chose this one because it was sufficient for my needs and way less than half the price of their "best" juicer.

I also invested in another item. I'd had one of these before, years ago, but after 7 moves, parts were missing and a major piece had gotten crushed. I had learned when my kids were little how valuable a good squeezer strainer can be. So, after much debate (after all, my Foley Food Mill could do the work) I went back to Lehman's and got one of these - http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen___Canning_and_Preserving___Food_Mills___Roma__Food_Mill___070801?Args=
My purchase didn't come until 5 of the bushels had been done because I kept up the debate in my mind. I'm glad I broke down and got it. It's done now and I'll have the equipment for a long, LONG time. It's good to invest in solid, practical equipment. Both are non electric, so if anything happens to the grid, I can stick provide the family with juice and sauces.
So, I set out washing and cutting the apples. I only quartered them, threw them in the steamer and started getting juice. It doesn't take long at all. Many folks just pour it from the steamer into hot jars and let them seal on their own. I water bath can mine, just in case. I took the steamed pulp from the top of the juice and ran it through the food mill/strainer. It gave me much more sauce then the Foley food mill and was much neater and easier to use.
This time, I decided that I would make apple butter with most of the sauce. I hadn't made apple butter since the kids were little, because I had such a hard time keeping it from scorching, so I was a bit nervous. I used a heavy bottom sauce pan and put one batch on to cook using an automatic stir thing I'd gotten on the advise of a friend. It was only about $10 and as you can tell, I'm a sucker for gadgets.
I waited and waited ....and waited. The auto stir thing did it's job and kept the sauce from scorching, but I still had 3 or 4 more batches of sauce waiting for me to turn into butter! I finally hauled out the big crock pot and put the rest in there to cook away during the day. I have to say, I thought the crock pot method was a bit of a cheat, but I tried both methods and the crock pot won by a mile. It was cleaner and much easier and didn't take all that much longer.
In the end, I ended up with 7 quarts of juice, 2 pints and 11 half pints of apple butter and about 5 pints of apple sauce! I turned the little bit of apple pulp left after the food mill got done with it over to the chickens to eat. I can honestly say that every last bit of the entire bushel was used.

Now, I have a nice gift of apple butter to give to the folks I give gifts to. It cost me pennies to make. (ok, we're going to look the other way on the equipment I purchased since it will keep working for years!) I have a demo to give this weekend on grinding grain and making bread with the resulting flour, so I'll add a small loaf of bread in with the apple butter. This how to give gifts! It's all hand made, all pretty much organic, all healthy and best of all...very inexpensive!
Cookies, though a bit more pricey to make, are also a great gift. Many people are so busy that a homemade food gift is a real treat. They know how much time it took and appreciate it. Even kids can appreciate homemade goodies. When my kids were little, I had 5 nieces and nephews to buy gifts for and little money to do it with. I decided to make their favorite cookies and jam and instruct their parents that it was ALL theirs. I even made little labels with their name on it. Before long, they were putting in their orders early..."Mom and Dad don't like raisins, so make sure you put them in my cookies" or "I really like the kind of jam with three berries mixed together". I was surprised, but I went along with it and the kids looked forward to their own treat each year. And, bless their hearts, those kids made sure I got my jars back so I could fill them up again!
When it comes to the cookies, many folks work so hard and worry about what to make and I just crank out old fashioned favorites. I sometimes make 200-300 dozen at this time of the year, so I have the system streamlined. I start with No Bake cookies, but I generally toss in a handful of coconut and raisins. I make double batches and cover the entire counter with waxed paper and just cook and drop...until I drop! These will last for several weeks to a month if kept covered. Then I make up chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, magic cookie bars and my grandmother's meringue cookies (which last 6 months!) I make double or triple batches of each. Then I get little bags or tins and put a dozen of each inside and tie with a ribbon.
You can make an ordinary cookie "special" by drizzling a bit of icing or chocolate on top. Applesauce cookies are easy and healthy, as are oatmeal raisin cookies if that's important to you. I personally give up worrying about the health issue for the two weeks of holiday time.
If you save seeds, make up small packets and give them to folks who garden (or want to start)! I like to decorate terra cotta pots, which I get on sale at Michael's once a year, and I put the seed in that and give as a gift. Some times, you can find small garden tools at the Dollar Store or Michael's and those could go into the garden gift bag also.
Gift wrapping is easy with home made gifts! People don't really expect much wrapping on these gifts, but I use a paper bag to give them in. I like rubber stamping them, but you don't even need to do that! A piece of fluffy tissue sticking out the top is attractive and you can make (or buy) a ribbon bow. Even a handful of raffia tied to the handles looks attractive. This year I have a running joke with some friends about bandannas, so instead of tissue paper, they will have a bandanna cushioning their gifts...pretty, but practical!
By choosing home made, you spend much less cash, but you are investing a bit of time. Make your time count by choosing less fussy recipes and making in big batches. Decorate simply, remember, you are giving a gift of time and quality and that's what's important, not the premade fancy wrapping.

I hope that gives you some ideas! The radio show this week will be on Back to Basics with food packing, amounts to store and inventory and rotation. Please join us at shtfradio.com. Thursday nights at 8p.m. eastern time!