One of the most frustrating things about COVID-19 was the cancellation of events. One of the events that was our favorite annual tradition was Josh’s Apple Cider party. Held in the fall, Josh would purchase several bushels of apples and have friends and family come over to help process them. You could say I’m a sucker for work, but I enjoy the fellowship of others and the work is actually fun. It starts off with washing apples in a bucket and cutting them into chunks. Of course, cut out any bad spots or worms.
Next comes the mashing of the apples. The goal is to mash the apples into pulp. This makes it easier to squeeze all of the juice out of them. This seems to be the most coveted station as its easy to see your results. You can see Sonora in the middle turning that wheel.
Finally when the pulp is ready, its put into a press to get all of the juice out of it.
The end result of the press is the raw cider. Josh is careful to separate the different types of apples as they go through the process. I’m fascinated with the difference of flavor between each type of apple. From here, Josh does some sort of brewing magic and turns this into cider beer. I’ll have to learn more about this process in the future. I almost forgot to mention the donuts and pizza we’re fed while we hang out. Talk about the 2 most important food groups!
Hogan Haake