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It has become tradition to go apple picking with my high school friend Marcy and her family at Carlson’s in Harvard Mass. We throw down a blanket in the middle of the orchard, cut some just picked apples to go with sharp cheese, drink a few octoberfests, and oh yeah – there is the picking too! The trees are so full at Carlson’s we can fill a half bushel bag in minutes. It makes for a perfect fall day, until I get home and realize just how many apples I have.

I developed this recipe based on Daniel Mattrocce’s renowned pear-cranberry chutney. It makes use not only of the abundance of apples but also the dozens of hot peppers I grew in the back yard.

Ingredients

6 pounds cortland or macintosh apples, peeled, cored and diced small
  note – use cortland if you want the apples to maintain their shape, macintosh if you want them to break down completely.

3 cups minced yellow onion

3T finely minced fresh ginger

3 large cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups golden raisins, coarse chop

20 each fresh habañeros, seeded and minced, (use gloves!)

3 cups cider vinegar

2 cups light brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2T white mustard seed

2T ground tumeric

3T kosher salt

6 ea. cinnamon stick

1 1/2 t ground allspice

3t ground ginger

3t ground cloves

zest of 3 limes plus juice

Method

place all ingredients, except apples in a large, shallow pot, bring to a simmer. Add apples and cook until soft, for cortland or thick and pulpy for macs.

Remove solids and reduce liquid to a syrup.

Put into hot sterilized jars and process in a hot water bath for ten minutes.
Here are detailed instructions for canning in a water bath

makes about 12 half pints