Friday Fotos -- Three generations of Cider Fun (November 1, 2019)

Freshly washed drops ready to make into apple cider.

Last weekend we gathered "drops" at a local pick-your-own apple orchard.  Drops are those apples that have dropped from the trees due to wind, wildlife foraging for apples, or people who dislodge apples while apple picking and then do not want to pick up apples that have touched the ground OR have picked a blemished apple and upon realizing it simply drop the apple and pick another unblemished one.  Many drops are perfectly fine apples or merely blemished.  They are excellent apples for making cider because the chopped apples are caught in a filter bag before crushing and therefore stems, leaves, blemished skins, etc., are caught and do not make it into the juice runoff.  More importantly, drops are usually sold at a much lower cost than pick-your-own prices ($3.00/basket as opposed to $1.25/pound at our local orchard).  Many, if not most, apple orchards are happy to have drops cleaned up by hunters who use apples as bait or cider makers who don't mind blemished apples or apples that have been sitting on the ground.

Getting apples for cider with our two granddaughters.

Today Molly and I and our daughter-in-law with our two granddaughters made some cider on a manual press that has been in the family for decades.  Our granddaughters are the third generation to make gallons of homemade, unadulterated autumn apple cider.  It seems it is becoming a Tew family tradition.

The girls crushing the apple mash to make the fresh cider.

In the above photo, apples have been placed in the black hopper at the top center of the press.  The wheel to the left was then turned so that the drum with metal teeth inside the hopper grabs and chops up the apples into a mash that then drops through the bottom of the hopper into the filter bag in the round, wood-slatted basket.  The girls are lowering a long screw that will then press a wooden block inside the basket against the apple mash to squeeze the juice out of the fruit mash and .  .  .  produce the wonderfully fresh apple cider that is shown running out of the collection tray into a stainless steel pot before it is divided into half gallon plastic jugs.

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All photos by Pamela Winkler Tew.

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew

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