Apple Cider.

This week we've been making apple cider.

In our new orchard we have planted 2 rows of specific heritage cider variety apples. These trees will be 5 years old and ready to fruit next autumn.

In the meantime, every winter we make apple cider from the ugly, unsellable fruit.

We are not really set up with all the equipment for cider making so each year when the time comes around, we try and invent new ways to better last year's experience.

This year we have been using the garden mulcher to pulp the apples.

I wasn't there when they first filled it up and turned it on but I saw the aftermath of apple dripping from the roof and in beards and eyelashes.

Once pulped, the fruit is then poured into this old wine press, a lever is wound, the fruit is pressed and the juice pours out the bottom.

The pulp is finer this year than other years which means we are getting more juice but also that it is coming out the sides of the press.

Next year we'll line the barrel with shade cloth before we pour in the fruit.

Yeast was added to the juice to start the fermentation process and now these drums will gurgle and hang out inside our warm house for the next month or so.

We could really have used the final product to warm our insides today when it is 4 degrees at 1pm.

In other news: we had a film crew from Channel Ten's 9am with david & kim's program here last Tuesday. Some of the footage they took will be shown on next Monday's program.

I'll post the link to the video once it is up.

For those who can't wait until then: here's another video that was shown on that program a few months ago, before I started this blog. Wait for that wiggly thing on the right to stop turning and it'll play.

I hope you have a great weekend and stay warm wherever you are.

Autumn

The arrival of Autumn always makes me feel a bit sad. It means the end of warm, carefree, sunny days and, especially in this area, the arrival of a seemingly endless, cold and dark few months. But there are a few things I do love about Autumn...

I love the abundance of the harvest that is either sold or packed away in a cool, dark, dry place for use over winter.

I love making jams, jellies, pestos and sauces from berries, apples, quinces, herbs and tomatoes.

There is always something dripping through muslin or simmering on the stove. There are jars being sterilised in the dishwasher or heated in the oven.


It is most likely Autumn if you are asked if you want homemade blackberry jam, quince jelly or honey from our bees on your homemade crumpets.

I love that the stresses of bushfire and irrigation are minimal and that the worry about exact timing of planting and picking lessens.

Bren is inside more.

We cook and we bake more.

It is a calmer time.