Pressing Party and Potluck

 On labor day we attended a neighbor's annual apple pressing party. That morning we stripped the rest of the apples off the trees and most of the asian pears also to take with us. One thing that was different about this pressing compared to ones we have done in the past is that we cut the apples into quarters. Bad spots also got cut out, although what was consider to be bad was left up to the discretion of the person cutting. This obviously made it a lot more work to make apple cider, but there were lots of people there to help and it made the apples easier to grind.

 This was one of two presses at the party and was similar to the one we have used at camp.

 Most, but not all, of the pears and apples we brought with us. There was at least one more five gallon bucket of apples already being cut.

 There were so many people there, this is maybe about half. It was fun to meet lots of people and talk with the ones we were working with; everyone was in a festive mood and having a good time. The only unfortunate thing about it, which we didn't realize before we went, was that most people didn't bring any apples. So, we didn't end up with anywhere near the amount of apple cider we expected to have, which we were planning to turn into apple wine. That didn't work out, but we do have plenty just for drinking. And we ended up with lots of asian pear cider, five gallons worth. We started fermenting three gallons of that yesterday.

Joshua spent most of the time helping work this press, while I cut apples and pears with a group of about four other people around our age. We didn't have any cutting boards and I ended up slicing myself a few times, two of which I noticed right away but there were a number more that I found after washing up a bit. We both got pretty splashed with juice and sticky. After about three hours of pressing, we had a potluck dinner. There were a few buckets of apples left, so after dinner Joshua and I ran a press together to finish off the apples.

On our way out, we went to the sheep pasture to look at the solar panels. I got distracted taking pictures of the golden field in the setting sun. I love rich golds and browns of summer.