Pressing Matters...

Did I say matters? I meant APPLES!

So, for the past few weeks I have been up to my eyeballs in various sorts of canning projects. One week we made Apple Pie filling and Grape Juice and Prune Juice and Canned Plums and Canned Apples and Apple Sauce and Apple Juice and probably a few other things that I'm forgetting as well.

Last week, however, I took a break from the canning and picked apples. One of the nice things about living in the country is that there are PROBABLY a few places to pick apples - either that, or neighbors who are kind enough to give you apples. Fortunately for me, there are both. Add to that some wonderful friends who love picking things too, and you've got a party!

A friend of mine found an orchard that had u-pick apples for 35 cents a pound. GREAT price, since in the store the same apple type is selling for well over a dollar. So, we went. The intent was to fill the back of a pick up truck with apples. Mind you, I was NOT about to PAY for that many apples, since that's a lot and I don't think his scale would have been able to handle that weight - but instead, we asked if we could pick up the apples from the ground.

How could this be? Well... we have hogs. We just didn't tell him that we only have 3 hogs, and that we were planning on squishing the juice out of the apples before giving them to the hogs. So... graciously, the orcharder (sort of like a farmer, only without the animals...) allowed us to pick apples off of the ground (and for his graciousness, we promised to come back next year and we also bought some apples - 110 lbs worth as a matter of fact...). Filling the back of the truck took the better part of the day - and I only wish I could have seen the look on Kristen's husband's face when she came home with their pick up full of apples...

That was Friday. Saturday, the fun began. And when I say fun, I mean work being fun...

A few weeks ago we purchased an apple press.

An OLD apple press.

And, after Andrew re-built the barrels and the tray that goes underneath it, we had the press up and running on Saturday! The end result? 55 gallons of delicious, crisp apple cider. (12 of which we gave away to those who helped in any way possible.)

The freezer is coming on Thursday. Until then, we have the majority of the cider in the refrigerator downstairs on the coldest possible setting (and we're keeping the door closed to keep the cold in...) and the remainder is in two of the three freezers we have downstairs. We've talked about opening a little roadside stand - but making cider is too much work to sell it for $6.00 a gallon - which is what the other stands are selling theirs for.

In the meantime - if we can get more apples, Andrew is up for turning the crank!