Fall, apples

Applesauce through the food mill

Cooked apples go into the food mill whole, skins, cores and all, and come out as sauce. The mill sorts the skins and seeds from the fruit just by turning, a simple machine children can run themselves.

About 40 minutes, with 20 minutes of simmering

Picture cards for your child

Ingredients

Servings

Each serving is about 1/2 cup.

Tools

a vegetable scrubber
a cutting board
a child knife
a pot with a lid
a food mill
two bowls
measuring cups and spoons
a large spoon

Your child chooses

Your child picks the apples from the bowl, all one kind or a mix of colors.
Your child decides how big to cut the chunks, small cubes or big hunks.
Your child decides whether the cinnamon goes in, a little or none at all, a small choice that is all theirs (agency).
Your child chooses which bowl the sauce lands in and who gets the first spoonful.

Steps

Wash hands with soap and water.
Scrub the apples in a bowl of cool water.
An adult cuts each apple into quarters.
Cut the quarters into chunks with a child knife.
Put the apple chunks and water into the pot.
An adult cooks the apples on the stove with the lid on for about 20 minutes, until they are soft. One or two apples soften in about 10 minutes.
Wait until the apples are cool enough to touch.
An adult sets the food mill over a bowl.
Spoon the apples into the food mill.
Turn the handle of the food mill.
Look at the skins and seeds left behind in the mill.
Stir in the cinnamon, if you like.

Your child's part

Two and three

Scrub the apples, drop chunks into the pot and turn the mill handle with your hand on theirs.

What to expect. Scrubbing apples and turning the mill handle with you can hold a two or three year old for ten minutes or so, and wet sleeves are part of the fun. Wandering off and coming back when the mill starts is a fine way to take part.

Four and five

Cut quarters into chunks with a child knife, measure the water and turn the mill on their own.

What to expect. Many four and five year olds stay through the cutting and the milling, especially once they see sauce come through the holes. A few chunks on the floor and sticky hands mean the work is happening.

Six and up

Cut, measure and stir, then taste and decide whether the sauce needs cinnamon.

What to expect. Older children often run the mill themselves and want to taste at every stage. Success looks like a bowl of sauce they can point to and say they made.

Taste and compare

Set out a slice of raw apple beside a spoonful of warm sauce. Look, smell and taste each one. What changed when the apple cooked?

I wonder

I wonder where the skins and seeds go when we turn the handle.
I wonder why the apples turned soft in the pot.
I wonder if apples from different trees make sauce of different colors.

Clean up together

Your child carries the skins and seeds from the mill to the compost.
Your child rinses the scrubber, shakes it out and hangs it to dry.
Your child wipes the cutting board and the counter with a damp cloth.
An adult washes the knives, the food mill and the hot pot.

Storing it

Cool the applesauce and put it in the refrigerator within 2 hours of cooking.
Covered in the refrigerator, it keeps 3 to 4 days.

Connections

Apple trees nearby, if you have them. Apple seeds never grow true to their parent, so every apple tree from seed is a new variety.
Apple skins and seeds from the mill can go to the compost.
Fall, when apple trees give their last apples. Dried apple rings use the same apples.

Safe hands

An adult cuts each apple into quarters, since a whole apple rolls. Children cut the quarters into chunks with the flat side of the apple on the board, fingers held in an arch over the top (the bridge grip).
An adult stays right beside a child who is cutting (close supervision).
Hot apples wait until they are cool enough to touch before children spoon them into the mill.