We have a decrepit apple tree — the sheep barked it, a hedge has swamped it, it has die-back and more lichen than leaves and has produced about ten apples in as many years — until this year.
It still doesn’t look very healthy but, by God, this has been a good year for apples!
A fraction of the crop.
Trouble is everyone has had an exceptional year — Alan was bemoaning this fact at the pub and the fact that we no longer had a cider press (actually that was a huge relief — we are trying to cut down.)
Next day a friend arrived with, guess what!
State of the art cider apple masher and…
Cider Press!
It takes a lot of apples and a lot of mashing and pressing to produce a gallon of cider. We’ve got through about 200 pounds of apples.
The kitchen is now full of demi-johns bubbling away — it smells like a real farmhouse kitchen and everything is sticky!
I don’t think I can face bottling it so we will have to rack it off (to remove the sediment) and insert bungs into the big jars — that will mean we have to drink it a gallon at a time — Happy days!
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dianaashworth 