My parents’ neighbors press cider every year. They bring over a huge crate of apples from across the mountains and host a big pressing party with food and fire where everyone takes turns chopping, grinding, pressing, and pouring. They sell the cider for $3 a gallon and it tastes absolutely delicious fresh.
This year, though, we had the opportunity to pick as many apples as we wanted from a friend’s house, where they had a dozen or so neglected apple trees, for free. The apples were weighing the trees down and littering the ground, there were so many of them! So we loaded up several buckets, bins, and boxes, and took them home to press.
This year, my parents’ neighbors held a “private pressing” so they could make sure to get some cider from their own apples—their pressing party was such a hit 2 years ago there wasn’t any left for themselves! We were invited, and managed to squeeze about 10 gallons of fresh cider from the apples we brought. Since the apples were free, we saved $30 and got plenty of delicious juice. Great success!
Some of it we will inevitably drink fresh—it’s too good to put down, and it makes amazing mulled cider too!—and the rest I will (attempt to) ferment into hard cider.
I tried making hard cider from last year’s pressing, and it’s just now, after a year of aging, coming into a good flavor. Cider seems a bit tricky to me, and yet the process is ridiculously simple: it will ferment on its own with the wild yeasts from the apple skins. You don’t have to do anything to it. Of course, for greater control over the process, you can add a reliable yeast strain to take over.
So we will see how the hard cider turns out this year. I’m hoping for something crisp and tasty, and maybe sooner than a year.
I also have plans to build a bigger and better cider mill once we buy land, with a separate grinder and press for a more efficient process. I’m already drawing up designs even though it’ll probably be at least a couple years before I build it. I guess I’m a little excited…