Let’s can mixed berry applesauce!
My family loves applesauce. We can put a whole quart away in a day, if not a meal! I really enjoy getting creative and making different “types” of applesauce outside the plain ole apples. This is a great way to use up those ugly apples that are seconds form the orchard or free from a kind neighbor! If you follow me on instagram or facebook and watch my stories, you’ll see I recently found myself with over 200 pounds of apples I needed to deal with. I’m currently about halfway through them with no end in sight. I got them for $6 and some were picked for free from a friend’s trees.
I currently have plain apple, chunky cinnamon, sweet cherry, strawberry, and now mixed berry applesauce on our canning pantry shelves. My kids normally get to go “grocery shopping” and always like to pick their dessert out and it’s usually applesauce! Home canned applesauce is both super easy to make and also far more delicious thann anything you’ll buy in the store!
I had a frozen bag of mixed berries I wanted to use up plus I had those apples I needed to work through, so I made a canner load batch of mixed Berry applesauce. It turned out so very good and I’m happy to share it with you!
A waterbath canner load for me is 7 quarts, so that’s the amount I was aiming for here! One batch made 7 quarts and another made 5; it depends on how saucy your apples are, I suppose. Most berry waterbath times are going to be the same or shorter than applesauce, so for me, I’m comfortable adding them to my recipes and waterbathing for applesauce times set forth by the NCHFP or what you would find in your canning books; 15 minutes pints, 20 minutes quarts at a full rolling boil. This can also be pressure canned and there is guidelines and weight recommendations on the NCHFP website here: National Center for Home Food Preservation | How Do I? Can Fruits (uga.edu)
The recipe:
