Fall is here according to the calendar, but the days remain warm. No complaints from us about the unseasonably warm weather. Maybe the remaining green tomatoes will turn red before our first killing frost. My husband Jayme has been rebuilding a turn of the century cider press this summer. Our best guess is that the cider press was made by Superior Drilling Company sometime around 1900. The cider press was in poor shape, but with all the necessary pieces. Jayme took it apart, cleaned and welded the metal, and replaced all the wood framing. He still has some work to do. 
The rebuilt wood hopper that feeds the apples into the grinder is still in the the shop drying from the clear coat. The wood press baskets are not shown in these pictures. This picture is a closer shot of the fruit grinder. All fruit starts out by going through the grinder into a wood press basket underneath (not shown). Then the basket of fruit mash is moved forward to the large press that screws down (the wood portion also in the shop being finished).
When the press is finished, we plan to host an Open House at our small farm and invite people to come out We will have our remaining produce farm fresh eggs, and a selection of jams for sale. We encourage you to bring out apples to press too. The handle can easily be turned by kids, so we hope you will bring the whole family out to visit. We will give you the cider from your apples that you run through the press. Check back for exact dates - most like one or two days of October weekends. Start collecting those apples soon!
Wow it looks great. I talked to a friend who has ties to Green Bluff. He said go to orchards and ask for grounders. They should be free or very cheap and will make good cider. He recommended washing them in a tablespoon of bleack in a 5 gallon bucket of water and then rinsing well. You can change the flavor of the cider depending on the type of apple. Some will be sweet and others will be tart. As I recall we poured the cider into a new clean plastic garbage can and then strained it through cheese cloth to get the bigger pieces out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment and suggestions. I will have to make some calls to Green Bluff in search of "grounders". I appreciate your advise too! April
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