At the closing of each summer, we gather at the Shaffer household with the Henshaw family and sometimes some other friends to press cider from all the great apple trees on their properties. It is always one of my favorite end of summer activities, getting to spend a whole day with people that I love and make something that we will all enjoy in the weeks and months ahead knowing we each had a hand in making it happen! This year, we had a big crowd of 17 (including Corbin) and so many apples, it was hard to believe. I think the final count was 67 grocery bags plus a big cooler full! That's a lot of apples!
After we powered up on my favorite breakfast of chili cheese egg dish and pear coffee cake, we got to work at about 10:30. We wash the apples, cut away any worm holes and icky spots, roll them down the bridge into the chipper, then press the apple chips into a pan. The contents then get dumped into a large garbage can which gets filtered through a cheese cloth into gallon jugs. It took us about 5 hours to get through all the apples, and we ended up with about 45 gallons of cider! Not bad for a days work! And Kevin and I were able to bring some apples this year from our little tree, so it was nice to get to contribute more than man power this year!
The cider press and chipper
The washing and cutting station: Susan is giving a lesson to some of the newbies
Corbin manages his minions from his comfy perch!
Kevin and Sonja dig in!
Roll those apples!
Dana cranks the press to make yummy yummy cider!
Hard at work! Jill, Kevin, Erin, and Susan
Could these apples be any prettier? Some batches were less than pleasant though!
Thomas and Jessica take a quick photo break.
Paul gives cranking a whirl!
Kevin, Sean, Sonja, Dana, and Thomas
Jill and Jessica start a new station straight out of the cooler! We sped up a great deal then!
Cutting away! I'm much better than I have been in years past, and didn't slice myself at all!
All hands on deck!
Sonja gives the cider a good stir to prep for filtering
Susan and Kris have been pressing cider together for 28 years! They are pros!
My handsome husband!
Jill and I relieve Susan and Kris from filtering duty. That was the first time I'd done that job. I think I have now done every job with pressing cider!
Relaxing after a hard days work in the afternoon sun.
Gratuitous nephew shot :) Look at that grin!
Corbin called it a night pretty early! Cider pressing is hard work!!!
Most of the gang poses for a final cider pressing 2008 photo! It was an excellent time!
After we powered up on my favorite breakfast of chili cheese egg dish and pear coffee cake, we got to work at about 10:30. We wash the apples, cut away any worm holes and icky spots, roll them down the bridge into the chipper, then press the apple chips into a pan. The contents then get dumped into a large garbage can which gets filtered through a cheese cloth into gallon jugs. It took us about 5 hours to get through all the apples, and we ended up with about 45 gallons of cider! Not bad for a days work! And Kevin and I were able to bring some apples this year from our little tree, so it was nice to get to contribute more than man power this year!
The cider press and chipper
The washing and cutting station: Susan is giving a lesson to some of the newbies
Corbin manages his minions from his comfy perch!
Kevin and Sonja dig in!
Roll those apples!
Dana cranks the press to make yummy yummy cider!
Hard at work! Jill, Kevin, Erin, and Susan
Could these apples be any prettier? Some batches were less than pleasant though!
Thomas and Jessica take a quick photo break.
Paul gives cranking a whirl!
Kevin, Sean, Sonja, Dana, and Thomas
Jill and Jessica start a new station straight out of the cooler! We sped up a great deal then!
Cutting away! I'm much better than I have been in years past, and didn't slice myself at all!
All hands on deck!
Sonja gives the cider a good stir to prep for filtering
Susan and Kris have been pressing cider together for 28 years! They are pros!
My handsome husband!
Jill and I relieve Susan and Kris from filtering duty. That was the first time I'd done that job. I think I have now done every job with pressing cider!
Relaxing after a hard days work in the afternoon sun.
Gratuitous nephew shot :) Look at that grin!
Corbin called it a night pretty early! Cider pressing is hard work!!!
Most of the gang poses for a final cider pressing 2008 photo! It was an excellent time!
2 comments:
I'll link to that!
Yay!
hooray for cider-making! nice post! :)
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