* It is always more fun to press cider with other people than with yourself. Kind of like a barn raising, quilting bee, corn husking, or any other sort of work "party." * 20 lbs of apples = 1 gallon of cider. No wonder it tastes so good -- all that fructose, condensed!
* Pressing cider is the most fun when you do it in a fun, beautiful location. (See picture <--. You'll get what I mean.)
* When you freeze apples before you press them, your cider turns out a lot differently -- more like applesauce than apple cider. It's not a bad thing -- just leads to extra thick, almost syrupy goodness. W says it's because the freezing action helps break down the cell walls.
* Pressing is a multi-step operation.
1. Buy apples
2. Wash apples
3. Cut apples into halves
4. Put the straining sack in the barrel.
5. Put the barrel under the press.
6. Use the press, hand cranking, to chop the apples into tiny bits that go into the bag.
7. When the bag is full, close it up, ties inside, and put the lid on the barrel.
8. Screw the lid of the barrel down tightly. Leverage (see yellow rod) helps. Don't get dizzy!
9. Enjoy the hissing and popping of the fruit and watch as the juice oozes slowly out of the cracks in the barrel.
10. When you can't press any more juice out, let it sit under pressure
11. Unscrew the lid. This is actually harder than it looks because your hands will probably be cold and it is hard to unscrew something smoothly.
12. When you've unscrewed it enough to clear the barrel top, remove the barrel and the bag for cleaning. 13. Tilt the table to make the juice run into the container under the spout.
14. Funnel the juice into your final carrier.
15. Enjoy!!!!
* And then you enjoy dinner, ever so tastily. And enjoy the view, too. This picture of one of my favorite people basically sums up how I felt about Pressing Day.
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