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.

End of July.

We are more than half way through winter here in one of the coldest parts of Australia. The days are slowly getting longer even if you can't notice it yet.

A lot of my time is spent trying to keep warm and cozy but Daylesford Organics is still ticking along doing the every day chores as well as preparing for the next growing season.

There is always a great long list of orders and things to do each day on the coolroom door.

The Spring bulbs are starting to bravely poke their heads out of the ground which always makes me feel a bit optimistic.

The market trailer which has been parked here for the last few months will soon need to be cleaned out and prepared.

The coolroom that sits on the back of Bren's ute will need to be unwrapped and used for deliveries again.

And those chickies, my how they've grown.

At 3 and a half weeks old, their legs are growing long and although their heads are still fluffy, their bodies are full of feathers.

Not long now until they are ready for some outside playtime.