Bottled Apple Pie Filling

As a fund raiser, the scouts used to go to an apple orchard, way out in the middle of nowhere, to pick apples for the people in my sister, Emma's ward. When our children were little, Emma, Mary & I decided it would be fun to go out to the orchard with our kids and pick them ourselves. The apples cost $5.00 a bushel. The kids had fun picking the apples and playing in the orchard with their cousins and avoiding all the red ants. We would sit the babies in a box so they couldn't crawl around and get stung by the ants or get poked by the puncture weeds and cockle burrs. We picked a lot of apples. We continued doing this for a few years, until there was a fire in the orchard and they lost all their trees. They eventually replaced some of the trees. But most of the orchard was subdivided and homes were built there. It was a real adventure going to the orchard, partly at least, because it was sooooo far away. Several years later, we bought our house in Sandy and discovered that the orchard was just a couple of miles from our house. It really is a small world.
Emma had this recipe so we used some of the apples to make bottled apple pie filling. It makes delicious apple pies. It's a little work to bottle it (but not too much). But it is worth the effort when all you have to do is make the crust, open a bottle and bake it to get a genuine homemade apple pie.

Bottled Apple Pie Filling

4 1/2 cups sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1 cup corn starch
1/4 t. nutmeg
1 t. salt
3 T. lemon juice
5 1/2 -6 lbs. peeled, cored and sliced apples.

In a large saucepan blend first 5 ingredients. Stir in 10 cups water. Cook and stir until thick and bubbly. Add juice.
Pack apples into hot jars, leaving 1" headspace. Fill with hot syrup leaving 1/2" headspace. (Use a spatula to help distribute evenly). Adjust lids. PRocess in boiling water bath. Pints 15 minutes. Quarts 20 minutes.
Makes 6 quarts

Before serving, prepare pastry for a double crust pie. line pie plate. Add 1 qt filling. Dot with butter. Adjust top crust. cut slits and seal. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.