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Home » Homesteading » Apple Cider Making Time

Published: Oct 12, 2016 · Modified: Nov 8, 2020 by Kathy · This post may contain affiliate links

Apple Cider Making Time

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It's Apple Cider Making Time - An Annual Trip to a local Apple Cider Press 

Placing a lid on a jug of fresh pressed cider.

Visiting an old apple press

An old wagon filled with pumpkins.

We have a few apple trees that produce a handful of apples every year.    My in-laws, on the other hand, have several apple trees that produce tons of apples.

Do you remember our apple pruning in the spring?  All that hard work paid off with a bumper crop of apples.

After making apple pie filling  and apple butter and drying apples and eating apples, we load up the remaining boxes of apples and head north to a small farm to make apple cider. 

This old apple press has been around for ages. We've been taking our apples here for years, and it's worth the trip every year and I have to wonder if another press like this exists anywhere else.

They produce apple cider one batch at a time for each family's own apples. The size of the batch depends on the amount of apples.

A ladder moving apples into the press.

First you back up your truck to the outside of the building and dump your apples on this old conveyor belt lift. The apples are sprayed off and washed with water in a drum.

Apples in a large drum and then falling onto a conveyor belt.

Then up another conveyor lift to a massive chopper. The apples are chopped and all the pulp falls down onto a thick cotton blanket.

Each folded blanket below is filled with crushed apples.

Crushed apples falling onto a pallet with a brown sheet.
Apples cut into small bits on a large wooden frame.

Once all the apples are crushed, the pressing time begins with a massive hydraulic press. 

An old hydraulic green press.

The apples are pressed and a waterfall of apple juice cascades down the sides. This juice is gathered in the base and then flows through a tube and is pumped up into a huge holding tank.

Squeezing the apple pulp with a hydraulic press and juice pouring down the sides.
A large container hold 50 gallons of apple cider.
Filling the gallon sized jugs with plastic tubes.

The owner runs the press, but we unload the apples and fill all the jugs. This year we had 83 gallons! That's a lot of apple cider, but we just never seem to do things small around here.

We store the cider in the freezer and pull it out whenever we need some juice. It's a lot of juice, but between four families we use it up every year....Plus my mother-in-law makes a killer hard cider!

Cider in gallon jugs stacked in boxes.

All the pulp gets dumped out the back door into a tractor. It is then dumped for the cows to eat. When the cows hear the tractor start up they come running....they know what's coming!

Pulp left from pressing apples in a tractor.

If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below and snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @beyondthechickencoop

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Fred G says

    November 05, 2018 at 5:44 am

    Great apple cider

    Reply
  2. annie@ciaochowbambina says

    October 14, 2016 at 12:28 pm

    I love that press(!) and your thorough photo account of the process! Love everything about this - I can taste it now! A super autumn post, my friend!

    Reply
    • Kathy says

      October 16, 2016 at 6:59 am

      I think I love all things fall. Apple cider making is one of my favorite events.

      Reply
  3. allie @ Through Her Looking Glass says

    October 14, 2016 at 11:58 am

    Amazing Kathy - I love this post. I have seen an apple press like this once in Stonington, CT. It is quite an amazing thing to see and I'm so happy you get to use this press. YAY!!! 83 gallons??? Incredible. I would love to try your M-I-L's hard cider. Cheers to a wonderful weekend ahead my friend!

    Reply
    • Kathy says

      October 16, 2016 at 7:04 am

      I'm glad there are other old presses still around. They are quite amazing!

      Reply
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I'm Kathy, a busy working mom who loves to cook from scratch, grow a garden, and raise farm animals. Take a look around and find all my recipes, gardening tips, and country living antics.

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