homemade baby food

Yesterday I went to Sauvie Island and picked peaches with Margo.

Since I was able to pick enough peaches this time (and get some good apples as well), I'm finally able to move forward on the baby-food making adventure.

Cedar obliged by taking a nice long nap this afternoon, so I was able to get quite a bit one.

Since I already do a lot of canning, I have a lot of the equipment you need on hand. I received a baby-food processor as a gift, so I can make stuff with that commercial-baby-food texture. Today I made some apple sauce, and peach puree, and made blends with those and some leftover cherries and blueberries.

Apple Sauce (for babes)
Normally when I make applesauce, I just cut up whatever apples I have scored from around the neighborhood, and toss them peel and all into the crockpot. Today, I was pressed for time, so I peeled them, chopped them into big chunks, and steamed them in one of my bigger kettles. Then when they were soft, I transferred the chunks to the food processor and whirled them around until they were pureed. I have a baby-food chopper, so I transferred the puree to that, which has a finer blade on it, and made the applesauce smooth a creamy.

Peach Puree
I took the peaches, cut them in half, and pitted them. Then I steamed them (the same way as the apples) and once the skin was loose, I pulled it off and ran them through the food processor, followed up by the baby food-chopper (for that nice creamy texture).

Those were my "bases". Then I added some blueberries and cherries to make blends. So for instance, apple-cherry, apple-peach, peach-cherry, peach-blueberry, apple-blueberry. The cherries and blueberries sweeten up the apples and cherries a lot!

Finally I can have a break from the financial tyranny of those dollar-a-jar baby foods (as well as more options--they don't really come in that many flavors). Aside from the huge savings (you can make a boat-load of baby food for the same prices as a few of those jars), it's also nice to know where your food comes from, and how fresh it is.

I am looking forward to having more raw material to work with in the future...apples, pears, and plums!