Today was my first day back to work after a week-long stay-cation.  I was surprisingly productive; the grass is mowed, the garden weeded, the house clean.  I picked more tomatoes and decided to can crushed tomatoes for soup and chili this coming winter.

I also noticed that the apples were ripe.  This is the earliest I have ever harvested apples as it's usually October before I pick them.  I picked two five gallon buckets of apples yesterday with the intention of making apple butter next weekend, but I just couldn't help myself and got started right away.  I made 28 half-pint jars of apple butter (I ran out of half-pints so I made one pint jar as well) and still had 3/4 of a bucket of apples left.  I already have too much apple sauce in the basement and I have only quart jars left, so I made seven jars of apple pie filling.  I love this recipe because you just dump the jar into a pie shell and bake.  We have the flavor of fresh apples all winter long!

I also picked a bucket of apples for the cows- they love apples!  I don't know that I will use any more apples for canning, so I'm sure the cows will get their fill.