It is the first day of fall and apples are waning. It’s been an early year for fruit all around due to the drought. We’ve been eating apples for at least two months now. Mostly straight fruit and Ina Garten’s french apple tart which I can make in my sleep. However, I was persuaded to try apple sauce. I think it’s a simplified version of the Pioneer Woman’s sauce. Quite passable. Maybe I do like apple sauce, not as sweet and lots of cinnamon.
But the highlight of the season was/is the second go at hard cider. The Oak Barrel in Berkeley has an apple press for rent. I’ve known that all year. But I didn’t know how big (borrowed van) and heavy (borrowed random strangers walking down the street) it was. Through the apples in the hopper, turn the crank to grind them till they drop into the mesh-lined tub and the press the bejeebers out of them. Juice runs down into the wide-mouthed dish. I don’t really know how many apples I had, but now I have about 1.5 gal of juice, a-bubbling on the counter. The cider is a completely different beast from what I started with last year from TJ’s. Very concentrated and it tastes like our apples 😉
I added some crushed Camden tablet to each bottle, to get rid of any wild yeast? Is this where sulfites come from? Now it’s bubbling. We shall see where it goes next 🙂
Leave a Reply