I learned at a young age the value of the wisdom which can only be gleaned by those who have lived a lifetime before us. My parents taught me to listen and they drove the lessons of my grandparents home through repetition and life application. These are things I was fortunate enough to be taught by example and I’ll just bet you have already been taught them, too. Still, it never hurts to have a few of them written out plainly all in one place.
So today, as I bring you an easy method to freeze apples which my mother learned from her step mother, I’m also bringing you a little bit of wisdom directly from the folks who came before us with hopes that you’ll be kind enough to share some of your life’s lessons at the end of this post as well. ~clears her throat and steps up to the black board~
First off, a help with perspective:
Troubles are temporary. So is life.
Decide which one you want to focus on.
This is an extension of “This too, shall pass”, which is a blessing and a curse. Most folks think of it in terms of hard times: hang on, this too shall pass, but it also works for good times and moments of joy.
Holding your newborn babe? This too, shall pass.
Spending an afternoon with your mother? This too shall pass.
Live in the moment, Focus on what is important. Don’t let that time with your mother pass with you living in the hardships instead of the joy. That’s not to say don’t worry about paying your bills but don’t spend all of your time in the presence of your loved ones seeing only your bills instead of their faces before you.
If you can’t say something nice…
This is a big one that most folks learn around preschool, but it seems in our modern era that a great many have either forgotten it or decided to ignore it. In the age of the internet where people get all trumped on a power trip of anonymity, it is even worse. Before we are quick to think ill of another, and most especially before we are quick to speak ill of another, we need to put ourselves in their shoes and realize that they are a person just like us. It never hurts to think of how our words will affect their family either. Remember, the trues test of character is who we are when no one is looking.
Just because someone has money doesn’t mean they’re better than you. Just because someone doesn’t have money, doesn’t mean you’re better than them.
Good people come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Don’t let the friend of your heart pass you by because you can’t see past one of these obstacles.
Wisdom doesn’t come automatically with age.
This is a very important one to me that I am always striving for. When I was a girl, I thought everyone older than me was automatically wiser than me. That rug gets pulled out from under your feet pretty quick! I’ve found that the folks who seem to have the most wisdom and understanding are those who have valued and sought it throughout their lives, using each situation to try to become a better person or to have a better understanding of others.
More often than not, doing the right thing won’t be easy and no one will even know you did it.
Your reward for being a good person is being a good person. Be glad you can sleep at night and get over it. You may not have a parade thrown in your honor but personal pride counts for something. Hold your head high and know your Mama would be proud of the person you have become. Honor, Integrity, and your good name cannot be bought or sold. They must work for and careful cultivated through a lifetime.
At the end of the day, there is always something to be grateful for.
To me, no one was a better teacher of this than my great grandmother, Lela. Most folks who consider themselves to have hard lives by today’s standards would change their thinking pretty quick were they to live just half a day in Lela’s shoes during her younger years. A sharecropper with four children to feed and take care of and a husband whose primary talent was taking what little money they acquired and spending it for his own entertainment purposes. She and her children worked from sun up til sun down, sometimes going to bed hungry because there simply wasn’t any food. They’d come in from a long days work in the fields and the kids would fall asleep wherever they sat first. Lela would walk around with a bowl of water and an old rag and wash the dirt off their feet.
But you know what? Lela always felt she had a lot to be grateful for. All four of her children were healthy. They had a roof over their heads, and though it was meager, they had food. Lela was wise enough to see these things as blessings rather than focus on their predicament as a curse. As a result of her attitude, we are now on our fifth generation of positive thinkers in this family and every single one of them have been happier and more fulfilled by growing up learning from her teachings of gratitude.
This is where you come in. What life’s lessons have you been taught by your elders that have guided you to be the person you are today? I’d love to hear them and a little about the person who loved you enough to teach them to you. I’m always talking about my grandparents, now it’s your turn!
Eventually, I get around to the tutorial so here are the apples we’re gonna freeze today.
This method works for any type of apples. Today I am freezing Jonagold and Fuji. If you’re going to be freezing them for a pie later, you might want to cut up a few granny smith and include some in each bag.
You’ll need about a gallon of water. First though, pour about a cup of that warm into a large bowl. Add about 1/4 of a cup of salt.
Stir until salt is dissolved.
Add the remaining water. This water should be cold.
Now we’re gonna peel our apples and slice them up one at a time.
Cut them however you prefer.
I usually do sections.
Be sure and remove the core.
There we go!
As you cut them, place all of the slices in the salt water.
I left the skins on some of mine because I prefer my fried apples to have the skin on.
Push them down in the water a bit and make sure they all get submerged good at some point.
After they have soaked for a few minutes, drain them in a colander.
Then place in freezer bags and label.
Laying them out flat like this when you freeze them will keep them from sticking together and allow them to thaw quicker.
Here is a bag of apples a few days later, frozen and still beautiful thanks to the wisdom from the “old folks”!
You can take these apples directly from frozen and use them fried, in muffins, cakes, or pies!
No, they won’t have a salty taste!:)
Freezing Apples Ingredients - Apples
- 1 Gallon water
- ¼ C Salt
- Freezer Bags
Instructions - Place one cup warm water in a large bowl. Stir in salt until dissolved. Add remaining water cold. Peel and slice apples (can leave skin on them if desired). Place each slice in salt water as you go along. When done with all apples, stir water a bit to make sure all have been submerged. Drain in a colander. Place immediately in freezer bags, label, and freeze.
- Apples
- 1 Gallon water
- ¼ C Salt
- Freezer Bags
- Place one cup warm water in a large bowl. Stir in salt until dissolved. Add remaining water cold. Peel and slice apples (can leave skin on them if desired). Place each slice in salt water as you go along. When done with all apples, stir water a bit to make sure all have been submerged. Drain in a colander. Place immediately in freezer bags, label, and freeze.
Some of my favorite Southern Plate apple recipes:
- Apple Dapple Cake
- Apple Skillet Cake
- Fried Apples
- Crock Pot Apple Butter
- Apple Flautas
- Apple Orchard Snack Cake
Live in the North Alabama area and looking for apples? Try Isom’s orchard in Athens, that is where these beauties came from!
“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.”
~George Santayana. To submit your quote, click here.
Are these apples good for eating, right out of the bag?
Or just for cooking apples?
Mostly for cooking but if you like frozen apples you could sure eat them!
Enjoyed all the stories!
Never knew -or asked- how the Greataunts or Grandmothers preserved those apples for winter pies and applesauce! Might have been magic; probably your easy way, but using freezer containers….no zip lock bags in the old days!
“What others think of me…. is none of my business!”
Hi! I appreciate the tip on apple freezing. I also enjoyed all the comments. My life lesson was taught by my great grandmother, and she assured me that I can do ANYTHING if I want to do it. And If I am not afraid of a little bit of work
U reassured me on how to do it with the salt after all I am dealing with organic amish Red Delicious
new tree apples that have sunspots from being by water pond. thank u
You are very welcome 🙂
I was searching about freezing apples since our lone apple tree is overloaded this year and I am busy with work so I don’t have a lot of time for working with them. I usually skim past the blog parts of recipes that I find online. This one, however, caught my interest!
Perhaps I read it because my grandmother raised me and I have always been partial to older people(of course, I am in the process of joining them!) I really appreciated the bits of wisdom and think they are important to share. I love your story about Lela. My grandmother lived a similar life. She married at 14, thinking she was gaining freedom from an overbearing father. Instead, she had married an alcoholic who would come home, having spent his paycheck on booze, and promptly try to beat his family. My “gram” would often send the kids out to hide in the ditch nearby while she stayed inside to distract him from the children.
My gram showed me generosity, putting others first, and the strength to endure hardships. She prayed often, made sure I knew Christ, and was/is my hero.
Thank you for sharing about Lela. It brought back treasured memories of my gram.
Thank you for sitting a spell with me and sharing memories of your Gram!! I hope you get all your apples put away and enjoy them in the coming months!!
My great grandma and grandma on my mom’s side taught me a lot about life and cooking/baking. I was 10 before GG got rid of her old wood cook stove that she taught me on. Always loved baking with it because everything turned out so wonderful! We made Lefse on the big flat top for holidays and would make huge pots of stews and soups plus she had a huge garden and taught me how to can and butcher. She had so much from doing these things she was always dropping things off with friends and neighbors because she never wanted anyone to go hungry! Sharing with others yoyr gifts/skills is important. Helping others brings you more than always taking. My Gma was her only living daughter as her youngest died when she was 9mo old and my Gma remembered how people always were there to help through the grief at the time. So i went with my Gma often to take meals or treats to families during that time and just sit and listen. Nobody knows what to say when there is a loss but you can just be there to listen. She also taught me to bake cakes and decorate them which i always loved watching her create so at 5yrs old she had me making buttercream roses right along side of her! I still do cakes often for people and I now have a large garden with a lot of fruit trees/bushes and I can and freeze and share what i do. My husbands grandparents were the same so when butchering comes around we help and making sausage we help and it gets distributed to family and friends!
Both my GG and Gma always said you can have a lot of money and status but it means nothing without friends and family and you make more friends and keep family together through food and they were correct! Now I have to get back to freezing apples and making applebutter! I have used salt before but now more often then not I use lemon juice instead.
Oh wow Jody, what a wonderful heritage you were blessed with!!! I love that you learned to cook on an old wood cook stove. I have always dreamed of having one someday 🙂