I'm still working my way through the many bags of apples I picked up from my friend Alyssa's dad earlier this week. Nine quarts of sauce have been made and canned, but there are still two bags and a box of those apples in the back of the Awesome Subaru.
Then yesterday, A., Cubby, and I went foraging for wild apples (more on this later in the week), of which we found many. MANY. Like, another shitload. That is also now in the back of the Awesome Subaru, soon to be en route to Alyssa's house. She has her dad's cider press there. And so today we will have a small version of the unbearably wholesome cider-pressing party she hosted last year.
I think it's just going to be our family and hers, actually. And a whole hell of a lot of apples. I'm guessing that Alyssa's husband Jodi and A. will do most of the actual pressing, while Alyssa and I act as support staff and attempt to keep our various small boys from pressing their feet in the machines or something.
The wild apples that A. gathered are meant to make old-fashioned hard cider. He and Jodi will press a batch of the wild apples mixed with cultivated apples for their hard cider, and then maybe they'll get to some plain sweet cider that the rest of us might actually drink.
Old-fashioned cider is rough stuff, man. Yuck.
So maybe today's cider pressing won't be quite as wholesome as last year seeing as how we're making alcohol, but it'll still be fun. And apple fun (and craziness) is what October is all about.
Happy autumn Sunday, poppets!
I'm thinkin' you might be able to make some nice cider vinegar...
ReplyDeleteCider vinegar would be a fall-back position if the fermentation of hard cider is not sufficiently anaerobic; however, hard cider is definitely NOT yuck. A great-uncle of A. once-upon-a-time had a wonderful barrel (yes, a whole wooden barrel) of hard cider in his woodshed. As I recall, the recipe included brown sugar and oranges to strengthen the mix, and there was talk of throwing in a steak as well, although that may have been left out in the end. The content of that barrel was fine, indeed.
ReplyDeleteMmm, apple cider. Mmm, hard apple cider!
ReplyDeleteOh. I spoke too soon on the other post about hard cider.
ReplyDeleteOf COURSE you're making hard cider.
How I could doubt you is beyond me.
Apologies.
And make with the hard cider recipes.