We will be pressing some of our apples at a community pressing this afternoon. We have about 5 bushels to be pressed into cider. What is still on the trees will be dried, made into sauce, or eaten fresh. There is a potluck that goes along with it, and it is a great chance to get out with the neighbors before the onset of winter. It was 32 F this morning. Anybody else do anything like this?
I am jealous. We have done that. The center has a press anyone can use with a limit on quantity of apples so only families can use it. But for some reason, they are not doing it again this year. Yellow jackets can be a problem. But not too bad. WE made cider vinegar from some of the juice. My wild foods dinner was cancelled again this year too. Could it be covid fears, still?
Depending on where you live, @Mary Stetler . Much of the Northwest has lockdown and cancel rules that focus on the fear. We came home with 12 gallons of cider and a could buckets of pulp to feed to the chickens. Now we have to figure out what to do with the juice. We took our own apples, and the orchard where it was held donated a good number of apples to our cause.
I'd love to do something like that. Those things hold more interest to me than taking a cruise or going to Vegas would.
We have one carboy going already. We are out of freezer space (unless we start up our old freezer in storage), are short on refrigerated space, and can't possibly drink all this before it goes bad (vinegar). That leaves fermenting it or canning it.
It's not quite the season here yet but it should be soon. There is an orchard up the mountain that grows apples along with peaches and plums. Here in PA, cider must be pasteurized in some situations, but if it is sold at the growers stand locations, no. What I buy is pasteurized. It's a large expense to buy the pasteurization equipment, but where I go they deemed it worthwhile because it's sold in groceries as well. Another place nearby is small so they go unpasteurized. I like the initial tartness when the fermentation begins but then it's too much.
When I lived in PA, I sought out cider made from Cortlandt apples. I found them to produce the best cider, and I usually bought it at roadside stands.
I apologize! My finger was shaking and I hit the multi quote button. I don't know what the outcome will be. Surprise!
Growing up on a ranch and later living in the mountains above ranches, neighbors shared a lot of events as a community. There was a potluck at least once a month. Neighbors always got together and still do for spring branding, vaccinating, and castration of bulls. Fall roundup time was one where there were always a lot of riders and a big chili feed. In any time of hardship neighbors always helped each other.
Almost daily I say to my family, Thank goodness we don't live in the city. I don't like flying anymore because it is so complicated but driving seems so, also. I hope mountains and ranches and neighbors will always be there. There is a subdivision on my north fence. Totally took over the land in 10 years! But I don't know the people. One of my old friends is on the other side of the subdivision. and the new highway is just north of her. She is 'trapped'. My daughter moved from a small town near Denver. Wide open space to the mountains until a year before she came home. Subdivisions popping up all over her vista, and traffic now! People have hundreds of 'friends', they don't understand neighbors. In time of hardship, the government will take care of them.