Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Apple Pressing

Ah! The adventures of apple pressing this fall. A friend of CM's invited us to pick apples so we could use CM's cider press.

The picking was good:

The pick.

Unfortunately, a small part on the press had to be replaced before use, and even more unfortunately the replacement did not fit as well as hoped. But we pressed on! :)


CM cranking the press.


It was slow going and took over an hour to get this much:

Straining the fresh apple juice.


We used mostly Gravensteins and they happened to be a bit too dry for us:

Sampling the fresh apple juice.

A couple weeks later we joined forces against more apples when we were offered the chance to use a locally rented apple press:


Look at that press!


It had a grinder as well, making the whole process smooth and quick especially with three people.

Working the press.


There was plenty more than this too:

Look at that froth!


And this time, the juice turned out deliciously good! Most of the apples used in this batch were an unknown variety that came on later so they were not as dry. It was a very pretty green and red apple about two inches in diameter, in case anyone can identify that. :)


We brought our half of the juice back and CM pasteurized it immediately. We bottled it up in three one-gallon plastic jugs. Only one remains ... safely in the freezer. YUM!

2 comments:

  1. I love C's face after tasting the apple cider. Where would you rent an apple press?

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  2. It was rented from Corvallis Brewing.

    The first batch was pretty bad. The second was great; those little apples were really good. I made a lot of apple crisp from the little ones too!

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