Apple prepping for Cider today.
Last year DH decided it was too much hassle to get the stuff down from the loft, so we used domestic kitchen equipment to juice ad press the apples. After a very sort space of time, we agreed that we should have got the proper tools down, and we would do so next year.
Well, this is next year.
DH picked apples during the week, and yesterday got the equipment down and cleaned and sterilised it.
I was on apple cutting duty. Actually, I only really needed to cut the mega apples in half, but I prefer to cut them all in half so that I can check there's nothing unpleasant lurking within.
Dad: What's worse than biting into an apple and finding a maggot?
Me (Very Small Child): Urgh. I don't know.
Dad: Biting into an apple and finding half a maggot.
For the last fifty plus years, every single time I eat an apple (or cut an apple) that joke makes me chuckle .
Anyway, I filled the sinks with water, and started the apple washing and cutting process. There are plenty of people who don't wash the apples, because the skins have wild yeasts on them which can be used in fermenting.
However, the wild yeasts is also why people go blind drinking moonshine , and you never know what you're going to end up with. So, we wash the apples and then add cider yeast, so we know what we are creating.
Because I was only cutting in half (apart from the apples that needed a bit more attention), it didn't take very long. When we use domestic machines, they have to be cut smaller, and this takes a suprising amount of time. At least double the time, maybe 3 times as long.
We only had one large crate and 3 small crates. Partly because DH didn't go so mad with the picking, but mainly because the poor trees had been so stressed from the drought that the'd lost a lot more apples earlier in the year than was usual.
DH operated the scratter (the thing which chops apple into very small pieces) and then the Hydropress (which extracts the juice from said small pieces, and it didn't take long at all
It's now on the breakfast bar, and the cider process has started.
