Peeling apples for drying OR why I now own a Kevlar glove

[RSKY]

Today I started on my eighth bushel of apples for canned slices, applesauce, and mostly for drying. Yep, one bushel cored, sliced, and canned. One and a half bushel cooked into applesauce and canned in pint jars. Six bushels peeled, cored, and dried on a dehydrator. Have given them away to everybody in the family and neighborhood. I already had a corer that split the apples into eight sections. And last year I bought another that split into twelve sections. This year I found one on Amazon that split each apple into SIXTEEN sections. Perfect for drying. So I started peeling apples with one of the peelers like you find at Walmart except this was a Pampered Chef one my wife bought this spring. Very sharp. So late one Monday night I am peeling apples, takes between 20 and 24 to fill dehydrator, and I peeled back a portion of my left index finger. It hurt, lots of nerve endings there, and it bled, and it bled. Wife thought I needed stitches, LOL. So I finally got it to stop bleeding. Applied two bandaids. And finished peeling, coring, and loading apples. Took three times as long but I got it done. Loaded another load Tuesday about noon. Took them off Tuesday about midnight and started peeling the next batch. Bandaid got in the way so I took it off. About thirty minutes after midnight I was working on the last apple, had it ready to core, and I saw one little brown spot on it. So I peeled the brown spot off and hit the same spot on the left index finger that I had cut two days before. THAT HURT!! Cut the same place but deeper and wider. Got the bleeding stopped. Wife (woke up by loud cussing) put a large bandaid on it. And by about 1AM in the morning I had ordered a pair of Kevlar cut proof gloves from Amazon. Got the wife a pair too. I had about a half dozen apples remaining from that bushel so wife made an apple pie. Took two weeks for the finger to heal enough that I bought two more bushels to dry. Got to stay busy!

Not one of my finer moments.

RSKY

 

[civilian]

Today I started on my eighth bushel of apples for canned slices, applesauce, and mostly for drying. Yep, one bushel cored, sliced, and canned. One and a half bushel cooked into applesauce and canned in pint jars. Six bushels peeled, cored, and dried on a dehydrator. Have given them away to everybody in the family and neighborhood. I already had a corer that split the apples into eight sections. And last year I bought another that split into twelve sections. This year I found one on Amazon that split each apple into SIXTEEN sections. Perfect for drying. So I started peeling apples with one of the peelers like you find at Walmart except this was a Pampered Chef one my wife bought this spring. Very sharp. So late one Monday night I am peeling apples, takes between 20 and 24 to fill dehydrator, and I peeled back a portion of my left index finger. It hurt, lots of nerve endings there, and it bled, and it bled. Wife thought I needed stitches, LOL. So I finally got it to stop bleeding. Applied two bandaids. And finished peeling, coring, and loading apples. Took three times as long but I got it done. Loaded another load Tuesday about noon. Took them off Tuesday about midnight and started peeling the next batch. Bandaid got in the way so I took it off. About thirty minutes after midnight I was working on the last apple, had it ready to core, and I saw one little brown spot on it. So I peeled the brown spot off and hit the same spot on the left index finger that I had cut two days before. THAT HURT!! Cut the same place but deeper and wider. Got the bleeding stopped. Wife (woke up by loud cussing) put a large bandaid on it. And by about 1AM in the morning I had ordered a pair of Kevlar cut proof gloves from Amazon. Got the wife a pair too. I had about a half dozen apples remaining from that bushel so wife made an apple pie. Took two weeks for the finger to heal enough that I bought two more bushels to dry. Got to stay busy!

Not one of my finer moments.

RSKY

I'd say that it was not "your finger moments". Couldn't resist. Yes that hurts even worse the second time. Dad got us kevlar gloves for hand carving small items. Never thought about them for apple peeling. Jon

 

[ponytug]

That sounds painful. How about a hand cranked Apple peeler?

https://www.amazon.com/Peeler-Stainless-Powerful-Suction-Potatoes/dp/B09BG1QD9M

I have even seen motorized ones...

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

We've got one of these. Had it for 25-30 years at least. Works great. There are many different brands, and types of bases, but you get idea. This one I clamp to a cutting board and the counter so it doesn't mar the countertop.

It will peel only. Or you can peel and core. Or you can peel, spiral slice and core.

If you want peeled wedges, you could peel pretty fast with this, then shove them through your wedge slicer/corer. It would go really fast and you'd save your fingers.

 

[MossRoad]

That sounds painful. How about a hand cranked Apple peeler?

https://www.amazon.com/Peeler-Stainless-Powerful-Suction-Potatoes/dp/B09BG1QD9M

I have even seen motorized ones...

All the best,

Peter

Yep, like that.

 

[CalG]

Wife and I (mostly my wife) have about a bushel and a half strung and dried. (finished in the drier due to warm and rainy weather.)

We use one of those "potato peeler" tools for the skins

No blood on the apples this year ;-)

Macs RULE!

 

[RSKY]

That sounds painful. How about a hand cranked Apple peeler?

https://www.amazon.com/Peeler-Stainless-Powerful-Suction-Potatoes/dp/B09BG1QD9M

I have even seen motorized ones...

All the best,

Peter

We used one of those for the applesauce and apple slices. But we had a problem with small pieces of peel left on the apple. So it was easier to use the 'potato peeler'. I said we used it. My six year old grandson loves to work. He would rather help me or his dad work around the house than watch TV or play on the iPad. So he turned the crank handle for two bushels. I put the apples on and took them off. He turned the crank and dumped the peels. Had a huge time laughing and talking while doing so.

RSKY

 

[oosik]

I have a hand-crank peeler like ponytug links to and Moss Road shows a picture of. Mine is by "Peel Away" and has a rubber suction cup rather than the screw crank - for attachment.

Very handy device - works like a champ. Easily attaches to any hard, smooth surface.

It peels the apple and slices to just about any thickness you could need( thickness is adjustable).

 

[jyoutz]

I know what you’re going through. We has 6 bushels of apples and two bushels of pears. All the apples went into canned apple pie filling and applesauce. The pears were pickled and turned into pear butter. I did use a hand crank apple peeler like others have posted. No bleeding incidents but never ending work. We ended up with about 40 quarts each of apple pie filling and applesauce, and 20+ pints of pear butter, 12 quarts of pickled pears. A lot of jars. But due to often getting late spring frosts, we don’t get fruit every year, so maybe we will use this stuff up before the next bumper crop year. Or maybe jars will appear in Christmas baskets this year.

 

[California]

Has anyone found a cheap source for canning jars? We pick wild Blackberries in the back of the orchard and make ~70 half-pint jars of jam for Thanksgiving and Christmas presents. But with my adult kids giving jars to their friends we don't get many jars back.

I used to find plenty of jars cheap, in thrift stores. One of the dozen-jar cartons I still use has a $2.29 price tag on it. Those bargains don't exist any more. I paid $37, $1.54 per jar, best price I could find, for two dozen jars from Amazon last year. There must be a better way! What are other people doing?