An Update: The Applesauce That Never Was

Oh, the trauma!

I recently wrote a post about my garden that mentioned my abundance of apples, and my ambitious plans for applesauce.  Here's what happened.

My son picked a paper bag full of beautiful apples from our backyard tree.  He brought them to me as I was reading Gone With The Wind in my bed.  With his eyes looking wide and proud, he showed me the bag of apples and said, "Can you make me some applesauce, Mom?  I picked these for you off of our tree.  They're really good, see?"  And he took a big juicy bite out of one of them. 

I smiled with the pride of a mother who's heart was full of the fulfillment that comes from a son who wants her to cook for him.

"Sure, honey.  We'll do it tomorrow."

So the next day, I made the proper preparations.  I found a recipe in my Ball Complete Guide to Home Preserving, and prepared the apples for cooking. 

Aren't they beautiful?

Small, but beautiful.

As I cut into the first few, they were crisp and juicy.  I was gaining excitement with every peeling, with every slice.  Then, I cut into another one...full of insect eggs!  Something burrowed into the core, hollowed it out and made it into a huge insect nursery...for hundreds of babies!  Really, hundreds.

"OK," I thought.  "That happens, no big deal."  With a bit of hesitency, I picked up another, this time inspecting it for holes and other signs of "home-making."  It was perfectly intact.  I peeled it and cut into it...right through a worm...that wriggled in tortured mutillated agony!

I jumped, yelped, and dropped it. 

"What's wrong?" my son asked from the next room.

"Oh, nothing..."  I said, trying not to blemish his expectations.

I cut into another.  It was OK.  Another...perfect.  I was beginning to shake it off.

And then, I cut into another, a perfect unblemished specimen.  As I cut it in half, there was a dark place near the bottom of the core.  Was it a bruised spot, or just a bad spot? I brought it to my face to look closer, and a fat white worm popped up at me like, "BOO!"

That was it...I couldn't do it any more...especially since I threw it and was dancing around the kitchen and waving my hands in hysterics, "I can't do this!  Nope!  That's it!  I can't!"

You know, the produce at the grocery store is really great this time of year.