Applesauce through the food mill

Ingredients

• 6 apples
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, if we like

Tools

• vegetable scrubbers
• cutting boards
• child knives
• a soup pot
• an induction hot plate
• a food mill
• two stainless steel bowls
• measuring cups and spoons
• a large spoon

Steps

1. Wash our hands with soap and water.
2. Scrub the apples in a basin of cool water.
3. An adult cuts each apple into quarters.
4. Cut the quarters into chunks with child knives.
5. Put the apple chunks and water into the soup pot.
6. An adult cooks the apples for 20 minutes, until they are soft.
7. Wait until the apples are cool enough to touch.
8. An adult sets the food mill over a bowl.
9. Spoon the apples into the food mill.
10. Turn the handle of the food mill.
11. Look at the skins and seeds left behind in the mill.
12. Stir in the cinnamon, if we like.

Why we use it

Children run the food mill themselves and see sauce pass through while the skins and seeds stay behind. Apples from a tree nearby, a farm or the market become a food we made, from tree to bowl.

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.

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 go to the compost.
• Fall, when apple trees give their last apples. Dried apple rings use the same apples.

Cutting with the youngest children

• An adult cuts each apple into quarters, since a whole apple rolls. Children cut the quarters into chunks with child knives, using the bridge grip with the flat side of the apple on the board.
• An adult stays close beside each child who is cutting (close supervision), while the others scrub, scoop or watch.

Clean up

• Vegetable scrubbers. Rinsed, shaken out and hung to dry.
• Child knives. Washed one at a time, never left in a sink of water, dried and returned to the knife roll with the blades covered.
• Cutting boards. Scrubbed with hot soapy water, rinsed, sanitized and stood upright to dry.
• Food mill. Taken apart and washed right away.
• Soup pot, bowls and the large spoon. Cooled, washed and dried.
• Induction hot plate. Cooled, surface wiped.
• Children may wash, dry and sweep as part of the work. The educator finishes and checks each tool before it is put away.