Another Apple Day

This year we actually had 2 smaller Apple Days; one a couple of months ago in August so that that Uncle Jonathon could experience making cider before he and Aunt Michaela left to go back to China. It worked out great because the neighbor's trees were ripe with apples and I had been driving by coveting them for weeks, seeing them just laying and rotting on the ground.  Then he offered once to let me have as many as I wanted; he didn't want them, so we made a short Apple Day out of it.

Not a great picture of Michaela, but Maddie is so cute!

Cutting out bad spots and worms.

Making the "Pomice"

Oiling the press with Food Grade Oil

Happy hogs!

Then in late September we had a more official Apple Day, but it was also a Half Apple Day, because we did it on a Sunday rather than a Saturday so that Aunt Arianna could be involved.  But we did more than just make cider.

Apple Turnovers, made by Mini Herself.

Prepping the basket

Nothing better than Fresh Pressed Cider!

Disaster!!

Then, disaster struck; the basket blew out from all the pressure of the press!  I patched it, but I have this thing against having to continually fix things so I have become disenchanted with this system.  I have begun working on a new system that will hopefully improve things and be more reliable.  Here are some early pictures.

It will look way different than the old one, but I hope it is a lot more effective.  It is air-over-hydraulic powered, instead of Dan powered, so it should be.  What I need is a way to keep the posts from rusting that doesn't use paint, because the platform will surely scrape it off as it goes up and down, therefore leaving paint chips in the cider.  Any ideas?

Cider

A pretty good tummy warmer after a cold day:
Make a simple syrup (half cup of sugar, half cup of water) boiled with 24 half inch chunks of ginger and a long stick of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of 90k cayenne powder.   Pour in one inch of Bourbon in the bottom of a half Gallon Mason jar, and add a half inch of dark rum. Mix in syrup with cider enough to fill to top of jar. Serve either chilled or warm.

The combination of all the warming ingredients produces a nice warming drink that will go down smoothly on any cool or cold day, without any overpowering flavors or too much heat. The Bourbon flavoring is almost imperceptible, just leaves a nose full of heady aroma.

catching up on blogging

Wow, so much has happened since I last blogged; it seems an eternity ago.  I don't think I mentioned that prior to the big rains, Hutchinson had some really massive hail, so we have just been swamped at work, which translates to swamped at home.  But I have managed to get a few things done around here; one was Apple Day! It was very similar to last years; a little less silly, but a lot of fun, anyway.  We actually had 2 Apple Days this year, we pressed 8 bushels total, and we had Aunt Karen here to help the first time, but I lost all the pictures of the first one.  Here are some pictures:

Swamped seems to not do it justice; just this morning, I noticed an email that I hadn't seen saying that I have been shipped 6 more fruit/nut trees that I ordered a long time ago.  I have been looking for them, and was going to dig holes for them so that I didn't have to do it in the dark after work, but I spent half the day at the chapel yesterday at a workday, so I will spend all afternoon today digging holes and building fences around them to keep the sheep off of them... Ugh.