Harvest Break - Part 1

After we moved to our current community seven years ago, it did not take long before we learned our children would be out of school for 7-10 days near the beginning of each school year for "Harvest Break".  Initially, I thought it to be an unproductive way to start the school year. But, as this is the time of year when the potato farmers harvest the spuds (and older students are needed to help) - we determined to have "Spud Harvest" become our family get-away together time.  It has been a joyful tradition for us and something the children have looked forward to each year.  This year, however, we broke from tradition a bit.

With Aaron at work, I employed the children in our own family harvest of sorts.

First on the list, pick apples from the trees of a widow in our ward.  There were plenty of gripes and groans about this huge undertaking but since I am a "mean mom" anyway, I determined to make it happen.  What a pleasant surprise to report that a few of the children actually thanked me later in the day.  Once they got involved in the project, they decided climbing trees and picking apples was a little bit fun after all:).

I think the thanks ended with the picking, however.

The next day, our real labor of love began.

It was very helpful to utilize the laundry room in our production line.

This is where all of the washing and cutting of the apples took place.

There were buckets and boxes full of apples so this took several hours to complete.

Jantzen - showing the "star" of an apple.

After cooking the apples on the stove, everybody rotated through this step of processing the softened apples through the strainer.

We did lots of shift work since the children had various attention spans and commitments.

I especially enjoyed listening to Quinn and Elsie chat while they worked together.  Elsie told me she was going to work all day long.  I chuckled when I heard her repeatedly ask Quinn if he wanted to pretend to be a "harvester" with her.  Happily, they kept themselves motivated and let their imaginations take over.  I'm still not sure exactly what their definition of a 'harvester' was but they were great little workers!

It was a super long and messy day but it felt awesome to put these jars of applesauce in the storage room the next morning.

With our final bucket of apples, we spent the next day putting up apple pie filling, drying apple rings and making fruit leather.  Brinley also made two apple crisp desserts - one for Great-G pa LaVerne (who was hosting a group of ten for the evening) and one for us to enjoy!

There were a few varieties of apples - not sure what - but all were tasty.

Jantzen really took ownership of this machine and raced against the clock throughout the day.  He was motivated by the need to 'work off' a recent purchase.  I was impressed with his speed and determination.  Thanks, Jantzen!

Yes, another sticky mess ensued but the results were worth it.

Apple rings

Fruit leather

By the time Thursday rolled around, we had one last project to take on.  My little troopers were nearly burned-out (as was I), but Anna and Brinley spent several hours washing tomatoes and helping me boil/peel/de-stem our garden tomatoes for salsa.  They also helped chop some of the peppers, onions, celery, etc. before leaving me to finish it up.  Anna 'worked-off' her ticket to the varsity girl's soccer game that evening and Brinley 'worked-off' her portion of the October cel phone bill (first one).  Yes, we have reached that milestone in her life.  It's hard to believe she is almost done with driver's ed already!

I was questioning my sanity just a little bit by the end of the day.  It seems I forget to eat or drink entirely when I'm involved in the canning process!  I tried a new salsa recipe and wasn't sure whether I wanted anybody to like it or not.  If it was a hit, I would be repeating this process again.  Then again, if it was a flop, my efforts would have been in vain. 
Ahh, the new salsa is a hit! 

Now that a few days have passed, I'll be ready to do it again next year.