My daughter and I gathered apples today so that we could make even more cider. We started with the apple tree in the neighbor’s yard and ended up gathering apples from the neighboring orchard. It has been a long time since the orchard was operated commercially. We asked the farmer if we could pick a few bushels of apples to make cider and he told us that we could pick all the apples we wanted. He also let us know that good cider requires a variety of apples, and then explained where on the orchard we would find different varieties.
We picked about 3 1/2 bushels total but ended up grinding only half. My wife, my parents, both daughters, the neighbor’s child, and even my niece helped. My homemade apple grinder isn’t finished and even with lots of help, using a food processor to grind apples is slow.
We pressed 5 gallons of cider. It seemed sweet so I am fermenting it without adding sugar. I also turned two quarts into spiced cider that we drank warm that night. It was very good.
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