Of all the fruits, apples are so versatile. You can eat them whole, or make apple crisp, or apple pan dowdy, or apple butter, or apple sauce, or apple pie, or apple dumplings or......
apple cider!
Saturday was a beautiful fall day in the Northwest. It dawned quite crisp, with some snowflakes, in fact! I could hardly believe my eyes. It all melted away by mid day, but the day remained quite crisp. The skies were clear and blue. Our lawn and driveway are covered in golden yellow and orange maple leaves.
They have made cider many times before so they have a pretty good system which allows them process a lot of apples. Good thing, because we had five big boxes and they had six. All those apples yielded about twelve gallons of cider.
I have never tasted anything like fresh cider. It is so different from store bought. The flavor is so apply! I know, that sounds so obvious, but really, it’s just amazing!
Even though it takes some strong arms to run the press, the kids had such a great time working together.
Making cider is a sloppy job and best done outside. They washed the apples and cut them into small pieces. Our water is really cold straight from the faucet. The apple washers' hands got pretty cold. After washing, a couple of the others, cut them up small enough for the hopper. One part of the press makes into small chunks, the other presses those chunks into the cider.
As they worked the press, one of them would bring the cider into my warm kitchen for the moms to strain.
All afternoon, the kids laughed and joked and had all sorts of fun, but they were so glad when they were all finished and could come inside our warm house to thaw out. The wood stove made the house warm and cozy, as did the stew and fresh French bread that we had simmering and baking.
It was a delicious meal, topped off with fresh, warmed, sweet apple cider.
Really, a perfect fall day!
That looks like you all had fun!!!
ReplyDeletemaking sider is always fun. but with good friends it is even FUNER!!!:)