Cider time!
If I had a formal Seasonal Activity Checklist (side note: now that I said it, I really need to create a Seasonal Activity Checklist), pressing cider would definitely be in the fall category. Partly because we have many apple trees, both our own and at our neighboring business’ and partly because we have an awesome cider press. But mostly it is just a fun and delicious activity!
We will have some warm cider tonight, cups from the fridge over the next week or so, and then there will be plenty in our shared family freezers to break out at later times throughout the next year.
Making a few last-minute plucks from a nearby tree.
A miscellaneous wagonful that Montana picked a few days ago.
Apple pressing at sunset, yes.
The hopper/chopper - we can throw apples in here whole and the blades will chop them up into small pieces as we crank.
The barrel that catches the chopped up apple bits is lined with this mesh bag.
We line the bucket that is going to catch the juice with a elasticized painting net from Home Depot.
Step 1 is ready for the dropping/chopping.
Then we close up the mesh bag and swing the chopper away and swing over the presser. The crank bar re-attaches to the presser. Some pretty cool physics in the gearing with this little bar.
Juice is flowing out as we are pressing. A little bit of foam, also. The netting captures the foam plus any large impurities.
We dump out the mesh bag with the spent/pressed apple bits into a bucket to drag it out for the deer, and sometimes it’s a little messy.
Action shot of the fill process!
Autumn yum.
