Remember that garden cart full of apples that I had picked from the tree, to prevent the bears from getting them and tearing up the tree? Well, once picked, I didn’t know what we were going to do with all those apples. I was sure we wouldn’t be able to eat them all before they started getting soft. Fortunately, a solution appeared.
In 2015 the local sustainability group had purchased the parts needed to make a portable apple press, and got a local man to put it all together. Every fall they wheel the impressive wood-framed contraption out so that people can convert their apples into juice.
We drove out to the Dunster Hall yesterday with our apples and some jars and put the apple press to use. Pete, the local apple press expert was there to show us what to do. The apples are first put into a chute that leads to a grinder. That’s Michelle in the red shirt dropping her apples into the chute. After being broken into bits by the grinder, the apple bits fall into a net-lined wooden bucket.
When that basket is full of apple pieces, the bucket is placed under a press which is turned by hand. That is Pete at the far end of the press with his hands on a board that turns the large screw that slowly descends, crushing the apples, and releasing the juice. The apple juice then runs down a long chute at the bottom of the press, into a container which you can’t see in photo.
It all worked smoothly and efficiently. I over-estimated the amount of juice our garden cart full of apples would produce. We took along five gallon jars, but only collected about one and a third gallons of juice. Michelle took the leftover crushed apple pieces to feed to chickens.
Our apple juice is sweet, tangy, refreshing, and tasty; we had some for our evening meal.
View my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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