Cider Making

Making cider is an American tradition in our area back into the 19th Century.   A cider press made itself into our family, a hundred years or so old with the wooden innards rebuilt several times.   Its become a yearly tradition getting the families together to press cider.

This was a good apple year with sufficient apples for the crew we had.  I got a chance to play with several of my old film cameras, thus the initial black-and-white photographs.

Wasps were a problem so a shop vac was added to deal with the pests.

We've talked about adding a motor to the press but so far, we have what we refer to as a kid powered press.   Our adult children are the backbone of the grinding operation - it's physically challenging for us senior cider makers.   We have numerous grandchildren but they're too small to power the grinder for long.

Washing the apples before grinding is quite an operations with kids helping.   You will note the wild variety of apples in the water - my orchard has some strange and wonderful types.

The leavings from the pressing ended up being driven down and fed to the cattle.

After a minute or two the children lose interest in cider production.  To deal with this, some adults monitored them in various impromptu activities such as cattle watching.

Big bovines were quite interesting at a safe distance.

I got to hold several granddaughters for a picture,  keeping them out of mischief temporarily.

Some of the boys attempted to play in a deep spring-fed pool before being scared off by the adults watching them.

As the operation wound down, the gator - a farm workhorse rather than a toy - was used to give kids rides.

I caught the riders in the gator as they motored by.

It has been a wet fall but it was warm and sunny cider day.  We had a fine time and ended up with more cider than we probably needed.   It was satisfying to keep up a fine old farm tradition.