October has nearly passed, and so has the time to pick this year’s harvest from our old apple trees. 2021 was a poor year for fruit, possibly due to a dry June. But this year the trees were in their full glory. Some of the fruit is canned for apple sauce, which we put on our morning yogurt most mornings. But we a product and freeze gallons of rich apple juice. That becomes part of our daily lunch throughout the rest of the year and the next, often diluted with tonic water.
A small portion of this year’s bounty
Each fall, we start production by dragging out the apple-pressing machine out into the yard. (It’s a somewhat messy process.) The press weighs over 100 pounds, so we usually move it with the tractor. But this year the tractor was in the shop, which meant taking the press apart and reassembling it near the yard hydrant.
The process begins with shredding the apples into small pieces. One person cranks the grinder wheel while the other cuts the insect and bird damage from the apples and tosses it in the hopper.
Spinning the crusher by hand can be a workout.
Crushed apples fall into a nylon bag, about two five-gallon buckets of whole apples will fill it. The crusher is then swung out of the way, the top of the bag is folded closed, and the pressing plate lowered into place. Juice starts running out of the metal cylinder before pressing even starts.
The initial cranking of the press goes easily, but to get the most juice, we do an initial press then raise the plate, loosen the apple solids, and do a second press.
Liquid gold from our old apple trees
We turn the press until the handle won’t move any further. To preserve the juice, we decant it into half-gallon canning jars and freeze it.
The final pressing; pull on the handle until it won’t turn.
Pressing apples can be a bit messy. Doing it in the yard means an easy cleanup with the garden hose. This year, we ended up with about 15 gallons of juice plus over 40 quarts of homemade apple sauce. Add in many bags of frozen blackberries and raspberries, and it was a productive summer.