Pressing Apples

Every year we get out our old apple press and make enough cider to enjoy during the winter. Of course, a couple of gallons are set aside for Thanksgiving and a few more for the making of some hard cider. You betcha! We gather apples from some of the old trees around town and our good friend Moe brings us a bunch from his orchard. The different varieties make a tasty brew and we have come to know which apples make the sweetest cider. It is not uncommon for us press a batch of apples and pears together. One year we threw some ripe grapes in the hopper along with the apples. All of this means a lot of taste testing. So terrible, huh? I am always amazed with the ability of our old apple press to keep grinding and pressing wonderful cider. This cider press was made in the 1800’s and still cranks out cider just like it did in its earlier days. Some things just don’t need to change, they don’t need to be upgraded or overhauled, and they certainly don’t need to be replaced by some modern version ( that will probably need replacement parts within the first year). We’ll stick with this old gal……which not only presses great cider but is beautiful to look at. Cider freezes really well, as long as you leave plenty of space in the jug for the liquid to expand. Our issue is finding room in the freezer. Several gallons will have to be stored in some friends deep freeze until some space frees up in ours. Or….we can just make a whole lot more hard cider!

Our good friend Sally helped with cider making!