PYO Apples: Our Vegan Apple Honey Recipe

Fall is without a doubt our favorite time of year. Not only were we married in October, but we also have halloween to look forward to. The gardens are cleaned back so that only our Brussel sprouts and parsnips are still in the ground. Garlic will be planted soon.

And of course, the kids are back in school. As of today, the canning is just about completed, with only a five-gallon bucket or so of green tomatoes to finish making into enchilada sauce, salsas and prep for friend green tomatoes later this winter.

Today, it was all about apples, sauce and our vegan apple honey recipe. Through chance or fate, our regular and increasingly-expensive usual haunt for pick your own apples had a lousy pollination year and were picked clean by October 1st.

Sammy, our 17-year-old did a quick search on his phone and found another PYO place nearby where we might have luck. Not only did we end up paying a fraction of what we were used to spending on PYO apples, we found a wider variety.

Canning Our Fall Harvest PYO Apples

We left with several gigantic pumpkins at $5 a piece, apple cider donuts, fresh sweet corn and about 20-25 pounds of a mix of apples, from standard Macintosh to honey crisp. We've learned over the years that no matter what the apple recipe, a good variety will always improve a recipe.

That first night we made fresh, chunky applesauce for dinner, holding back the peelings for our vegan apple honey recipe. Today, the rest of the apples were peeled and chopped for canning. Once again, the peels put aside for our special treat.

A few years ago, we came across an article talking about vegan honey and the best ways to make it. It was apple-based, and after a large PYO trip that year, we gave the recipe a try. It was incredible. It tasted just like real honey drawn from an apple orchard. A year hasn't passed where we haven't made it, expanding it to late summer peach and nectarine picks. This year, we planned on enough to last not only through Thanksgiving and Christmas, but well into spring as well. We're stocked.

Vegan Apple Honey Recipe

The concept is simple, and through the years we've adjusted it to our liking. As with many homesteading recipes, this one has a great deal of wiggle room for personalization, either by changing fruits or viscosity.

Ingredients:

Apple Peels from 20 or so apples (No Cores)
8 Cups Sugar
Lemon Juice
4 cups Water

Boil the apple peels in the water until rolling, then back off the heat to let simmer for about an hour. The idea is to render the juice and flavor. Once done, strain out the peels and set aside for compost, chickens, apple muffins, what-have-you.

Reduce the liquid to about half, then add in the sugar, stirring until all the granules are melted. Continue to reduce until you reach your desire thickness/viscosity. To test, use a cold spoon and dip it in the apple honey. Roll it around in the spoon and touch with your finger when cool. Once you are happy, turn off the heat and ladle into your chosen jars. We use 4oz jars usually, but even a pint or quart jar will work if you plan on using it out of your fridge.

Water bath can for 30 minutes at sea-level.

We were surprised about how many recipes we could use this in as a simple-syrup substitute, as well as dribbling it directly over cheeses and pancakes.

The taste is sweet as a stolen kiss and well worth the effort. It's such a shame to just toss out those peels when there is potential for such flavor only a short recipe away.

We love sharing our off-the-grid homesteading life with you all, and truly enjoy it when you join the conversation. Do you have your own vegan apple honey recipe that differs from ours? Let us know!