Inaugural Cider Batch

We’ve done it!  We gathered up a whole bunch of granny smith apples on Saturday morning (for free!) and turned them all into wonderful cider.

So, here’s how the process works:

Start by washing your apples.  I used the bottom section of the 55 gallon tub I used to make my chicken plucker, filled it with water and Courtney and I sat around while the kids were napping and inspected all the apples.  We sorted them into two buckets, one for good apples and one for those that had a moldy/wormy spot.  We rubbed each apple with our hands to knock off any dirt, etc.

Halve or quarter all of the apples.  This is so that they fit into the grinder.

Grind away!  The grinder will chew up the apples as fast as I can feed them in there.  It is amazing.

The ground up apple pulp is collected in a food grade bucket.

Another view of the grinding in action.

Filling the pressing bags.  The bottom three inches of a five gallon food grade bucket acts as the form.

Tie the bag with a piece of kitchen twine.

Loading the press.  Put a bag in the bottom, then a pressing disc, then another bag, and so on.  A lot of juice will come out into your catching basin before you even begin pressing, so have that in place first!

Start pressing.  On the ground is the scissor jack from our mini van.  You start with that and once there is room, switch to the 6 ton bottle jack.

The final product.  One sip and you’ll know what the “Wow” factor is all about on this fresh squeezed cider.  It is comparable to nothing else I’ve ever had.  Courtney and I drank a large pitcher of it over the next few days.  The rest was split between a few half gallon Ball jars to make vinegar with the balance put into a fermenter to make hard cider.

Thanks, Robert.

Other Apple Grinder/Cider Press Posts:

Project Introduction

Status Report

Cutting a Keyway

Completion

Being Bold: Apple Collecting

Apple Cider Vinegar (future post)

Hard Cider (future post)

Being Bold

Yes, I am back at least for today.  Both kids are napping… at the same time.  I have missed you all, hopefully I will get more days like this.

Okay, moving right along.  As Robert mentioned yesterday we spent a few hours on Saturday looking for heavy laden apple trees.  We weren’t just driving to the grocery store and hoping to spot an apple tree on the way.  No we were hunting.  From our mini-van.  What says family fun more than driving around looking for free fruit?

We had a plan when we set out on our adventure.  Our hunting grounds needed to be in established, aka old neighborhoods.  Places where apple trees would have years to get big and yield way more fruit than their homeowners could handle.  We also were looking for solitary trees.  Just one big tree in an otherwise vacant yard.  Sure we passed houses with tons of fruit trees and big gardens but we figured and confirmed by asking that these folks knew what they were doing and planned to use every last piece of fruit they produced.  Next we wanted a tree visible from the road.  Why?  Because we didn’t want the homeowners to think that we were stalking them by noticing an obscure tree in their back yard.  We were stalking them in fact but we didn’t want them to know that and think we were weird.

Now for the bold part.  I of course came up with idea that we go knocking on random strangers doors and beg for their leftovers but I wasn’t about to go and do it myself.  That’s Robert’s job of course.  My  wonderfully polite and mild mannered husband was tasked with the role of bold beggar.  I have no idea what he said at the door but he was successful.  All in all, he became BFF with  one old man, got a promise from one lady for all her fruit – in 10 years when she retired from canning, used a translator to ask permission to pick, and helped unburden a sick lady of all her pesky apples.

We (okay Robert) was bold and dared to ask complete strangers if he could have their unwanted fruit.  I am so glad that the desire to get free things is so much stronger than his fear of looking like a crazy.  He really is an amazing husband and a true match to my craziness.  I love you honey and yes I did have fun this weekend.

And one more thing: before the apple hunt, we also stopped at three different grocery store bakeries where Robert had reserved pickup of their used, empty cake icing buckets.  Food grade buckets have many uses on a homestead and were critical to our cider making.

Thanks, Courtney.

Other Apple Grinder/Cider Press Posts:

Project Introduction

Status Report

Cutting a Keyway

Completion

Inaugural Cider Batch

Apple Cider Vinegar (future post)

Hard Cider (future post)