Apples through freecycle

This week we have been busy with apples! In the past I have known of people that had crab apples but didn't use them and I know that I very much enjoy making apple sauce out of crab apples (as long as they aren't too tiny and sour). This year I decided I would try to do something about that situation. I have participated in Freecycle for a while now and so I decided to try that out. Freecycle (in case you don't know) is a cool organization that has local online groups that you can join and then people post things that they have to give away or things that they would like to get. (In this category you are only supposed to ask for things that other people might just through away or not use - in other words not big expensive items). I have done some giving away before but so far I hadn't managed to reply in time to get anything (which is fine, I didn't really need the stuff anyway). This time I did post a "wanted" item asking if anybody had crab or regular apples on trees that they weren't going to use and I said that we would be careful with the trees when picking. I got several responses so I was very excited!

On Monday we drove around 20 miles and at this place the lady had a tree with regular apples (which when we got there she had them all picked and ready to go for us!) and a crab apple tree with egg sized apples. The crab apples are incredibly yummy to eat just plain and we have really been enjoying them! We picked the apples off of that tree getting about 1 1/2 bushels. It was very fun. A friend from church went with us and so we shared the apples with her. Today we went to another house in town where the lady had offered her trees. She had more of the egg sized red crab apples (2 small trees) and another crab apple tree with golf ball sized apples that were really good! We got about 4 1/2 gallons today.
Now we are busy at work making apples sauce. It is quite a bit of work with crab apples but I take as many shortcuts as I can. First we cut them in quarters (Jonathan asked if he could help) and then I take the cores out.
Then I cook them with a little water until soft.
After they are cooked I use my hand held blender and puree them (skins and all) and then I add any cinnamon or sugar if desired. Then it is ready to can, freeze or eat.

I am really looking forward to having lots of apples sauce and apple pies this winter! Do have any other suggestions for storing apples?

Do you use freecycle? What do you think about it?