Easiest Apple & Plum Sauce

* I picked 5 pounds of each type of fruit because it is more manageable than the 10 pounds of each that I normally make. My 5 kids love this stuff in their lunches. Really, any 50/50 weight ratio works.

Wash all the fruit.

Halve and pit the plums. Throw plum halves into a large heavy-bottomed stock pot.

Quarter the apples . Throw (seeds, stems and all) into the stock pot.

Crush the 5 vitamin C pills (use good ones with no additives, the ones from the health food store). Add crushed Vitamin C to the pot (prevents browning).

Cook, covered on low until the apples are tender and ‘mashable.’ Stir occasionally to prevent burning. (This should take about 30 to 45 minutes.)

Set up your food mill over a large bowl. Mill the warm fruit in batches and the best applesauce in history will come out the bottom. Really amazing sauce.

It keeps (covered) in the fridge for 4 to 5 days, so it could be a week’s worth of snacks, without any canning.

To can or preserve it (the abridged instructions):

Place the still warm apple & plum sauce back in the stock pot. Carefully bring to a boil. Stir a lot, because it can burn.

Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, cap with 2-piece lids. Process in a hot water bath.

For pints, process at a rolling boil for 15 minutes (use the Ball Blue Book Canning times table if you live in the mountains).

For quarts, process for 25 minutes.

(Why so long? Two reasons: the first, I add no sugar, so it isn’t there to act as an extra preservative; and the second, applesauce is dense, so you have to make certain it is heated through.)

Canning results: I did 10 pounds of each fruit and yielded 7 quarts canned plus another quart for the fridge.