A few weeks ago, in prime apple-picking season, we drove up to my mom's parents' house on The Mountain to help with cider making! My grandparents restored an old cider press, and when there's a good apple crop, we all head up to help churn out some cider! I'm a superfan of apples, and this is one of my personal favorite ways to consume them, especially now that it's getting cold.
The whole process is really painstaking, and it takes a LOT of apples. They're cut up and crushed using the grinder on the cider press, and then blocks are placed on top and all that delicious juice is pressed out through a cloth. From there, we strained and bottled it up in jugs. Around 20 gallons of cider got made that day. I got to take home about a gallon and a half!
Grandma's deal is that if you come on Cider Day, you work, so there's me turning the press with Uncle Bob.
When I got home, I set out to pasteurizing and pretty-fying my cider. It's pasteurized by gently heating on the stove until just simmering. That way any germs those apples picked up from the ground won't make anybody sick. I also added some sugar and cinnamon extract to sweeten and spice things up a bit! Everything got rebottled in sterilized glass and wrapped in a ribbon! I gave several of these as gifts to people at work and to friends!
This stuff was so good! Such a great welcome to fall! What about you? Did you celebrate the seasons changing this fall?
ooh ya'll, this was delish
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