Cider Press

We realized that this year was the fifth year the boys have gone to press cider with the Cummings. This year I decided to tag along. It was fun to see the process! Usually we just see the results strewn all over the kitchen floor when we go to pick them up.

The past couple of years have not been good for local apples, so they ordered another bin of apples this year and had it delivered from Yakima. Six hundred pounds is a whole lot of apples!!!

Will obviously took the first picture! Unfortunately he got caught up in the fun and quit after this one.

It was just fun to be part of a bigger community getting together and having fun. Kind of like a quilting bee or a barn raising… In all we pressed (and drank) about 60 gallons of cider!!! We had to quit because we ran out of containers!

Even the rain didn’t deter these guys!

Some of those apples were really BIG!

First the apples get chopped and then they get pressed.

Then we strain the cider through cheese cloth into our containers.

A couple of neighbors had some apples to share, so the kids went over to glean some more for us to press…

Sometimes just climbing the tree works better than ladders

We also picked some grapes from the grape vines and threw them in, too. Apple & white grape cider is mighty tasty!

When it was all said and done we had a whole lot of cider! And it didn’t take long at all with all that good help…

Everyone worked hard but they still found time to play… especially when it came time for clean-up! ;o)

the leftovers don’t look so appetizing

Pressing cider is much easier when you can use a hose for clean-up. Too bad we couldn’t have used it on her poor kitchen floor!

The best part of cider pressing… having a fridge full of cider! We brought home 10 gallons!!!

Thankfully the shelves held up until we could get it all canned! Whew!

Thanks again, Cummings family! It wouldn’t seem like fall without cider…