Apple Pressing

The apples are ripening and falling from the trees, much to the delight of the chickens and pigs who eat the windfalls, so armed with trugs and baskets we set out on Saturday morning and picked a variety of apples.  
 


Sunday morning we assembled our Apple Pressing team and chopped and sliced our way through the piles of apples in the sunshine until it rained and we all had to move into the garage.


  

The apples were then put through the (very clean) garden shredder and the resulting pulp went into the press. 

After a bit of hammering and pushing and pulling, the screw was tightened and the juice flowed.  This was collected and transferred to large plastic fermenting bins.



 


 







The spent pulp was spread around the bottom of the hedges, in the hope that a stray pip might germinate and produce some wonderful new apple tree.






At the end of the day, all the equipment was pressure washed clean and we sat down to supper washed down with bottles of last year's cider.  Meanwhile, the juice is frothing and bubbling away, slowly turning to cider.