Task for Today

So, when we went to the orchard to buy the $7/bushel apples, it turned out they used the honor system. And all we had was a $20 bill and a few coins. The plan was to buy two bushels, but we couldn't make change. So, I, overcome in the enthusiasm of canning and cheap apples and how easy it was to fill up the bushel boxes with great big red Rome apples said to the husband, "Oh, let's just go ahead and get three bushels!"

As my mother would say, I had eyes too big for my stomach.

The first two bushels went easily enough. I got them done that weekend. The last bushel is not going so well. Even the girls have gotten tired of eating apples. They will have a few slices if I peel and slice the apple and beg them to eat it, but not otherwise. ("No tank yoo, Mommy," the preschooler tells me, shaking her head gravely. "No tank you.") I made my spiced apples and another batch of apple butter, but that still leaves me with half a bushel that I am desperately trying to pretend doesn't exist.

My kitchen looks like a cooking store exploded in it. I have cases of jars everywhere, the surfaces are sticky in unexpected places, the pressure canner has taken up roots on my stovetop and the dehydrator is stubbornly refusing to go back to its home under the counter. Not to mention the baby thinks the apples make great balls and, if she can reach them, will throw them vigorously all over the kitchen, trying to make them bounce. Which is why I have apples under the table right now.

Today I clean up and take a breather! I will decide what to do with the rest of the apples later.