Over the weekend we went to Hollenbeck's, an orchard that makes its own cider. The old-fashioned way. And, you can go and see how it's done. It was pretty cool.
We had to wait for a while as they set up all the equipment.
Luckily we had good friends with us!
So, first they pour apples into a wooden chute (top middle of picture) and they go down into the brown bin on the right (you can see some apples coming out the bottom). Then the apples travel into the gray machine in the left side of the picture, where they are heated and mashed up (peels and all). You can also see the wood slats that they stack inbetween the batches of apples.
So, they put a wood slat down with a metal frame on it, then drape a large piece of fabric (functions like cheesecloth) over it, then this guy (the owner of the place), uses a large hose to spray the mashed up apples into the frame.
Once the frame is full, they wrap the cloth securely around that batch of apples and remove the metal frame. 
This goes on and up until they have about 10 wooden slats with the cloth-covered apples inbetween, then they lower the press that you see above a little at a time to squeeze every last bit of juice out of the apple puree. You can see the cider coming out of the chute there at the bottom. We all got little cups of this fresh stuff coming out. TASTY!
My gratitude post for the day: Living in Ithaca has made me appreciate blue sky (when we can get it!). I love when the sky is blue.
3 comments:
I 100% agree with you on the blue skys...we need more of them!
You and your kids look adorable for Halloween!
That is pretty cool. You always do such fun things with your kids. I often think about when you guys got the real maple syrup.
Good for you! Carrying on the tradition of tours...Wish I could have had that fresh cider with you!
Love Jenny
Post a Comment