Apple leather and nuts

 Apple leather 

We had purchased some eating apples from costco that tasted like crap, so I decided to use them instead to make some apple leather.  The idea was to mix the new apples with some of the old canned applesauce that I had up at the farm.  I really like fruit leather in that it is convenient to take as a snack to work and greatly shrinks the space needed to preserve the fruit. 

I did a number of estimates to get an idea of the caloric value of apple leather.  My best estimate is about 83 Cal/oz.  This is a bit higher than what is referenced in some databases.  I am considering mixing the apples with pumpkin or squash to lower the calorie count but keep the flavor non-squashy!

Here are some pictures of the apple-leather process.

This leather took a while to dry.  I set it to 125F for 23 hours.  I think I added some time though.

I read this label and realized that the canned applesauce from 2014 had a batch that I had burned!  We will see how this turns out!  Hopefully it won't be too bad.  Mising weird tasting new apples with burned applesauce.  Yeah, that sounds promising!

More hickory shelling

I worked on shelling more hickory nuts while the apple-leather dehydrated.

More nuts, landscaping, and winter squash harvest!

Shelling nuts - this will take a while!

They actually have a good amount of meat per nut.  It's just taking so long.

Woooo - a whole half!  Nice!

Oh, and more nuts too!

Of course, I had to go out and pick up some more hickory and butternuts!  Ugh.

Landscape - hole-filling around the house

I discovered a DEEP hole (far deeper than I realized at first) right next to the porch I had just moved a week or so ago.  I got a couple loads of dirt from the old garage excavation pile and filled and piled up dirt high over the holes I found.

There was a DEEP hole right there in front of those onions!  

If you look at the bottom center of this picture, you will see that a chipmunk has already dugout a hole there!  The bugger!

I also lifted some of these pavers so that melting ice wouldn't make these areas slippery later in the year.

Also, I finally got around to regrading the front driveway a bit.  The gullies were getting bad from all the rains we had this year.  The water washes the gravel to down near the drainage ditch.  I use the FEL (front end-loader) to move this around and regrade and smooth.

Winter Squash  - buttercup

Just before leaving I harvested the winter squash.  Not a great load, but actually just about right for us to eat before they spoil.  These look different than I remember, but they do taste right.  I may save the seeds.

Typical buttercup end.