October 20
Cider-pressing Sunday!
Autumn never quite feels complete without the leaf piles, the cider mills, the apple orchards, the pumpkin carving...if I cannot get them all in, I better damn near get
something in. So after my disappointing attempt at filling the void with the apple-less Onalaska Apple Festival, I was thrilled to hear that Gretchen
's friend had just recently inherited an press that he was eager to put to use.
And so on Sunday, after a long weekend and late nights, Mary and I drove out to Gretchen
's farm for a full day of sun-basking and cider-making and some delicious food (and attention-loving dogs) Most all of the apples were donated by the Orchard harvest of a family-friend and the gathering brought tons of the community together, many of them now familiar faces to me. Over the course of four or five hours, over 50 gallons of cider were pressed and bags upon bags of pulp dished out to fanatic applesauce makers. Every time we thought all the boxes of apples had been demolished, another would be brought out from some hidden nook.
Besides everyone getting to take home fresh cider and sample it there, Tim was heating some to save for a hard cider experiment. Ty, the new owner of the press, had been making wines and beers for years so I chatted him up a bit on his experience. Mary and I took home a gallon or more of our own and I decided to test a small portion in some hard cider making of my own. In my excitement and spontaneity of the decision however, I forgot I needed say....yeast. And so I am currently waiting on a small package. In the mean time, the bottles sit on my counter, perhaps already doing their own fermenty thing...
Oh, the perfect lazy sunday. And it was so wonderful to not be COLD outside!
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| Cheers! |
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| Ty emptying a batch of cider remnants |
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| look at that Smile! |
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| The compost mound |
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| Yes Liz, I see you |
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| Gretchen taking a stab at the cider making |
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| Golden Juice of wonder! |
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