Here are our apples dumped in the hopper and ready to be ground up.
Abby "helping".
The ground up apples get dumped in layers on slatted trays which are covered in cloth. The cloth gets folded over the apples before the next tray is added.
The last picture would be on the right hand side of the picture below. After all of our apples are ground then the stacked up trays are pushed into the middle. Can you see the slatted trays? Then, the whole tray area goes up and gets pressed which is what makes the cider. It goes into a holding tank and we put it in jugs ourself.
We dropped one jug off to friends on the way home so this is what we came home with. Total cost: 25 gallons of cider at a quarter a gallon= $6.25 plus $.39 for each jug= $9.75. Grand total $16.00
How wonderful! There was an old cider press in a barn in Connecticut that my family and I used to go to each year (the owners turned it into a demo/tourist attraction). I love the smell of cider-pressing. Fantastic price for your cider!! Better than the $6/gallon here! :)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the smell! Cider is like maple syrup for us, in that if we had to *buy* it, we'd never have it! What used to be for the poor (ie: maple syrup) is now only for the rich, I'm so thankful that we can work to have it! I wish that I could send you some, you need to come visit. ;-)
ReplyDeleteParis
Oh my goodness! That is a huge cider press! We just used a little tiny one. You did even better than we did pricewise and I thought our $2 per gallon was good (although they were organic apples which factors into price)! And you do have a lot more people drinking it!
ReplyDeleteLissa, I'd like to get our own press eventually but for now, while we live here, we'll use the local press. It's an antique but I'm not sure exactly how old it is. We kept 2 gallons out of the freezer to drink and they were gone by last night! I smiled when you wrote that your cider lasted as long as it did. ;-) We'll press again before the season is over; my goal is 50-60 gallons in the freezer. You need to come visit too! ;-)
ReplyDeleteHey!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like y'all had fun!! We have a blast when we do it.
We get ours 100% free!!! When we're driving around we see tons of apples people aren't picking, so we ask if we can have them. :D
The press we use is also quite smaller. Its over 150 years old and it used to be hand powered so it could only be so big.
For jugs our neighbors get new water jugs from a water place around here.
I know what ya mean about Maple syrup, I haven't had that in YEARS. We used to make it with our friends, but we haven't for a long time!!
Wow thats a lot of cider!! We'll probably have 20 or more. that's all we have room for, since we just go 2 huge cows butchered, we froze cherries this spring, we also did corn, plus a bunch of other stuff.
We've made some applesauce this year we're getting ready to make applebutter, apple jelly, and we're planning to dry some!!
Sorry about the huge comment. I probably should just e-mail ya. :)
Brooke
That's amazing. I love cider, it's so yummy. As soon as the fall comes, I crave it. God Bless!
ReplyDeleteLauren
I got SOOOOO thirsty for cider when I saw the picture of those jugs full of cider!(very neat picture by the way:)
ReplyDeleteI canceled our pressing for Thursday and we are going Monday instead.Thank you for the jugs!! That will be a huge help and was so sweet of you....
How wonderful. Where is the local cider press you visit to get your apples pressed? I don't own a cider press but would like to visit a facility that could do the job for me. Thanks, Denise
ReplyDeleteDenise, if you live near an Amish community there will most likely be a press there. Otherwise, you'll probably have to do the pressing yourself. You could put an ad in your local paper to see where you might get them pressed or ask at an orchard and see who they recommend. Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteParis