Applesaucy

Homemade or store bought? Normally, I'd always say that homemade is the best, since I know what goes into the food when I make it myself and I can adjust flavorings to my own particular liking. However, when it's really good, storebought can be great, too.

A case in point. The first jar is applesauce that cousin Jan and I made together. We picked the apples off her very fruitful tree, peeled them on the comical hand-cranked peeler I got from Sally's kitchen that made us both laugh, cut around the livestock that had taken roost in a few of her unsprayed apples, cooked the apples down with apple juice to enhance the flavor, added very little sugar, crushed the softening apples with a potato masher to achieve the desired chunky texture, and bottled the resulting applesauce ourselves. Whew! At the end of the afternoon, we were tired but proud of our 15 glistening jars.

The second photo is of the jar My Beloved and I bought at the Happy Apple Kitchen as we were leaving. Darker and sweeter, it was still quite good. They must use a different variety of apples to get that rich color as the label states that there's nothing in there but apples, water and sugar. This jar required no peeling, cutting, cooking or bottling on our part and it complements our pork chops very well.

So, what's it to be? Storebought or Homemade?

P.S. I vote for homemade, as it was so much fun. Thanks, Jan!