Apple Cider

Do you remember all those apples we picked in October.  The last of them went in to cider yesterday!  We've all made sauce, and pies, dried  and eaten fresh, and now cider and hopefully, fingers crossed after our pressing party, some hard cider in a few weeks. 

We loaded up the last box of apples and headed to Lynn and Gary's to use their amazing cider facility, aka farm shop!  Last year Gary made a more efficient grinder and the neatest press.  He began this process by milling their own trees in to dimensional lumber and built from there.  It's all a work of art in addition to being functional and efficient.

Here's the process, from start to finish....

Reynald put apples from the orchard box in to tubs.

Which then went to the sink to be washed.

Washed apples went to the grinding crew.

Everyone took a turn at different stations.

Apples going through the grinder.

One person puts the apples in and the other pushes them through with this plunger.

You can see the pulp coming out.  

The grinder has an electric motor that turns the grinding tub.

Next the tubs of pulp are carried to the pressing prep table.  The pulp is loaded in to a bucket which is covered with a mesh cloth.

Crayton is pushing the pulp down to compress is slightly.

Then he used this dish pan to compress even further.  Then the mesh bag is gathered up and the pulp is put in to the press.

Mesh bags loaded with pulp.

Four or five of the mesh bags are put in to the pressing container.  Each bag of pulp is separated by a thick piece of food grade plastic that helps distribute the pressure evenly while pressing.

You can see that the bucket has holes drilled to let the liquid escape.  It drains out on to a cookie sheet that has a hole drilled in it, which drains in to a five gallon bucket, fitted with a sieve to strain the juice.

 

This gives a better view of the pressing bucket with the juice pouring out,

Gary fitted the press with a hydraulic jack that you hook up a compressed air hose to do all the work of the pressing.  

Emptying the pressed pulp in to large containers.

The Maurer chickens are going to feast on the pulp all winter long!

Lynn and Alicia transferring juice to a pouring container,

and then in to clean gallon jugs.

Jon and Alicia keeping the grinder going.

And now Matthew and Jon!

Reynald, Crayton and Gary were the main pressing crew.

And when everything was ground, pressed and jugged, it was time for an amazing soup and bread lunch....

with apple cider and an a choice of additions!