It was the first Community Apple Pressing Day of the season today (a day important enough to justify capital letters even if I wasn’t a Member of the Society for Unnecessary Capitalisation).
The rain came, though it was meant to stay away and the Community stayed away although it was meant to come. (When I say the Community, I mean the people with apples to press).
Sometimes life is like that. However I did give away some free samples, sold a bottle straight from the press, arranged a community visit and was offered free apples. I’ve also arranged for people to come to the next day (26th September if you’re around).
We were all tooled up to produce a hundred gallons but with the apples we had available we only managed five. Looking on the bright side, if we’d pressed 100 gallons I’d be pasteurising through the night.
Not feeling terribly wordy just now, and my shoulders are aching from the press (another reason I’m glad I didn’t do the 100 gallons!).so I’ll leave the photos to do the talking.
Meanwhile the unpasteurised juice we bottled on Wednesday has already started to ferment and has a nice crisp cider taste to it. Knowing my luck the accidental cider from that batch will probably be the best I manage…
Any interest in letting the fermentation go on for a bit and then making some apple jack? Haven’t tried this yet, but have read that a Virginia farmer used to do that all the time. Some guy named George Washington. Maybe you’ve heard of him?
Oh, and the curious part of me wonders whether there are dues for the Society for Unnecessary Capitalisation?? Their logo must suc 😐
I need to get enough done to stock the shop but after that I’m going to get fermenting – though I’m going to do it with an airlock rather than a bottle after a story I heard about an exploding sourdough culture!
Yum! The free apples part sounds good too.
It was a good day – always love tuning scabby, undersized apples into golden juice.
Productive apple trees are one of my dreams.
I was very interested in your link about growing fruit from pips and neglecting it – some of our best local trees are in hedgerows – presumably grown from apple cores. Hope you get your productive trees…
Thanks for sharing the good evidence that STUN works. And for the good wishes.