So much to do #1

So much to do and only a week in which to do it. Steve and I wound up the wick on the Apple collecting. We had a couple sessions of collecting Apples from a tame orchard and peoples gardens [with their permission] and other assorted hedgerows. We ended up with a little over a thousand pounds of Apples and a fifty pounds of Pears. Steve picked up the apple mincer and press on Friday ready for Saturday. At the appointed time Steve arrived with the mincer, the press and his stash of Apples. After some head scratching we worked out how the ratchet system worked. We put the Pears through first. They were so soft they hardly needed pressing. We pressed eleven litres from the pulp. We then set about halving apples to go in the mincer. If the apples are too large the mincer can not get a grip on them. Only a thousand pounds to go then!

H kept us supplied with tea and in between looking after us and running L around, helped with the chopping. At one o'clock we stopped for lunch. H rustled up soup from the best of the last Tomatoes from the greenhouse. Back to the toil. We got a system going that meant we could chop and mince the Apples whilst the press..erm, pressed. We stopped again at six for dinner. H had made a casserole from the Pork we had got a few weeks ago and, not surprisingly, Apples. There were Apple puffs to follow. Spot a theme? Nearly there. Only two hundred pounds to go. Another three press fulls and the jobs was done, apart from cleaning up. An hour later we were looking at our handy work: All the hire kit was wash and scrubbed as was the work area. Thirty gallons of Apples juice. A little over two gallons of Pear juice, one hundred of the best of the Russet Apples reserved for eating, a dozen Bramleys reserved for cooking and all the cake from the press bagged ready for the allotment. Cake is the pulp after it has been pressed dry. Steve swears by it for soil conditioning. I have put some in my compost bins to give them a kick start.

We are to have another go at Cider. It was not that special last year but we think we know where we went wrong. I am going to freeze some juice to keep it as juice. It ferments whether you want it to or not. And I will do a couple of demi-johns of Apple wine. I have fifteen gallons to play with. So thanks to Gloria, Richard, and those nameless people who discarded Apples along the Tow path and in the hedgerows and finally Steve for providing the impetus.