Our Trip to the Cider Press

It's been another busy week here at the farm.  DD and I were able to get away for a wonderful weekend in the mountains.  The trees are beginning to change color and we've had a nice stretch of perfect weather; clear days and cool nights - perfect for sleeping.  We stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast, toured a cave and went horseback riding.  As much as we love the farm, it's also nice to get away every once in a while, too.
The day before we left for the weekend, we picked apples and took them to the cider press.  

When we purchased the farm we were excited to see it had many apple trees already established.  They were old and overgrown but so far we've gotten two good years from them.  The first year we moved here we had a large crop.  We are blessed to live close to an old-fashioned cider press where we can take our apples to be turned into amazing cider.  This is a report the children wrote for their teachers:

 

OUR TRIP TO THE CIDER PRESS

The drive to the cider press is a beautiful trip, especially in the fall.  The trees on the mountains are a blaze of autumn color. 

First, a couple of hours earlier, we had to pick the apples.  We got to drive around in the back of the pick-up truck to get to the different trees.  We were able to reach the apples by using a ladder, climbing the tree, and/or standing in the bed of the truck.  We picked four varieties of apples.

The cider press looks, from the outside, almost like an abandoned warehouse.  The current building has been in use for around fifty years.  You dump your apples into a big hopper.  They are carried away by a conveyor belt to be washed.

 

Then they make their way to the chopper.  The chopped apple mush is held in a tank above the press.  Men spread the apple mush onto a tray covered by a sheet.

 

 

The trays holding the apple mush are layered.  They slide on a cart over to the lift where they are finally pressed.   

 

 

The juice is captured in another tank and transported by tubes to the table where the jugs are filled.

 

 

 

What is left after the juice is pressed out of the apples is called pulp.  The pulp is carried out of the building by an elevator into a big truck.  The pulp is fed to happy cows and pigs.

 

 

 

We got 37 gallons of apple cider last week.  We're hoping to go back for a smaller batch but we're in the midst of another big project right now, seeding the pasture and spreading mulch hay, so we may not be able to find the time. 

 

Hope you're able to find some good apple cider where you are.  Nothing says "autumn" like the taste of apples!