Wordless Wednesday: Hard Apple Cider Pressing Time Lapse Video
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011Here’s a fun time lapse video showing all the apples and our process from yesterday’s apple cider pressing post. Hope you like it!
Posts Tagged ‘apples’
Pressing Apples and Pitching Yeast; the Hard Cider is Bubbling
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
One night back in August, our good friend Devin came over for dinner and a few drinks. We were probably talking about the barn or some other happiness and he must have forgotten who he was talking to, as he said he’d really like to make some hard cider some day.
Well, I am incredibly impulsive and Ryan is a very good sport. So while Devin was still talking cider, I was online researching, being egged on by Well Preserved, firing off emails to arrange to go apple picking at the farm and had found a press on craigslist that we drove to pick up two nights later. Phew.
So jump ahead a month from our lovely and impulsive drive to Keswick, Ontario. We bought our amazing press from an Italian wine maker with a killer vegetable garden and now we’re at the farm. Sigh. The farm and its amazing apple trees that are having an amazing season in Prince Edward County. Sigh.
We came home with 8 bushels of apples. Home to Toronto, the racoon capital of the world. We stored the apples out on the deck so they would benefit from the cold temperature at night. Every morning I woke up and opened 8 giant rubbermaid tubs of apples and every night I tried to remember to close them back up. Hilarity, with much broom shaking at racoons and squirrels.
Two days before cider pressing day, piles of gorgeous crab apples showed up from our old Leslieville dog park friend Susan.
Then the organic cranberries went on sale post Thanksgiving. So I bought 8 pounds. Now we’re on to something.
So on a nice chilly Thursday morning in October, while the neighbours were all at work, Devin, Ryan, and I ate some apple crisp, set up the camera (we did all meet in film class) and started cutting apples.
So many apples. 6 bushels went towards cider, so 250 pounds in all.
Honestly, we didn’t have a clue what we were are doing despite two months of research now and a bad test run in September.
After a ton of trouble shooting, we have the first real flow of cider!
drip, drop.
It’s pink!
It flows!
Most importantly, it’s freakin’ fantastic!
We had a hard time for the first little bit. We needed to chop things much finer than we had thought. Next year we’ll build a grinder contraption. My poor poor food processor. At least we had help.
Another mistake I made was that I had froze some chopped apples to protect them from the beasts. The cold is supposed to help with the taste but they really needed to thaw before we pressed them, Frozen apples turn into hard masses that are colder than the universe when you press them. It’s dreadful.
After some trouble shooting we finally hit on a combination of cheese cloth, pressure, non napping toddler, and unfrozen apples that led to beautiful flowing cider.
And a good time was had by all!
So after a taste, it all went in my grandfather’s carboy along with some camden tablets. Two days later we added a champagne yeast starter and things are bubbling away happily.
The idea that started in August, led to a bunch of fun in September, is well on it’s way to fruition in October, for bottling in November, to hopefully drink and share in December. All because Devin wanted some cider.
We’ll be writing a little more about our actual process and organic / non GMO home brewing in the next few weeks but in the meantime here’s an another time lapse:
This 3 minute video covers 8 hours of apples. My favourite part is the oozing of apples from the first press (this should not have happened). Others like how the toddler keeps getting more clothes, how the dog is eating way too many apples and how we clearly stopped to eat lunch and dinner. What’s your favourite part? And is there anything you want to know?
Apples and Honey; An Inspired Apple Crisp
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Almost a year ago I, along with a few other bloggers were contacted by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to participate in some short Foodland Ontario videos featuring our blogs and small businesses. It was a pretty great experience, and one of the best things about it was being introduced to some other fabulous bloggers. Here it is if you haven’t seen it, the garden pretty much looks the same right now; All beets.
One of the other Ontario bloggers featured was Dallas of South Western Ontario Foodie. Her video includes this awesome apple crisp, check it out:
We haven’t met in person yet but after a year of chatting and cooking her recipes I’m ready to share the best crisp recipe out there and then the Cubit’s version inspired by apples and honey.
Here is how we do Dallas’ Recipe; A perfect mix of maple syrup and cranberries really liven things up:
7 small sized apples unpeeled and chopped into thin slices
1 cup of fresh or frozen cranberries
1/3 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup melted butter
Preheat the oven to 375F. Put the apples and cranberries at the bottom of a pie pan. Mix the other ingredients together but not too long or they will clump. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit and pat it down. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve warm or cold.
This is seriously the best thing I have ever tasted and we make it weekly during apple season.
Sometimes you need a little variation. So let me introduce you to the wonder that is apples, honey, raisins and cinnamon. We’re using these lovely little apples from our heirloom apple adventure. These ones keep their shape and colour while cooking and we think they are Chestnut Crabs or a close relation.
7 small sized apples unpeeled and chopped into thin slices
1/2 cup of raisins
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup melted butter
Preheat the oven to 375F. Put the apples and raisins at the bottom of a pie pan with half the brown sugar and the cinnamon mixed in. Mix the other ingredients loosely together, but not too long or they will clump. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit and pat it down. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve warm or cold.
Now I make one of each every time. It’s so easy and I have two pie plates so why not?
Both versions are excellent for desert either alone or with some ice cream, or for breakfast, sometimes with yogurt. I’ve made us some to eat while we press the cider tomorrow.
project365: week thirty seven September 17th, 2011 – September 23rd, 2011
Saturday, September 24th, 2011Whoa! Week 37 of project 365 and the blog has been going strong for a whole year. Thanks everyone!
September 17th, 2011 Self Portrait while Apple Picking! (this print is now available in my shop)
September 18th, 2011 Golden Swiss Chard at the farm. (this print is also available for purchase).
September 19th, 2011 Back in the city enjoying a drink in a bar.
September 20th, 2011 Spent my birthday taking pictures of apples and pears.
September 21st, 2011 Hydrangeas from the garden dried for Becca’s bedroom.
September 22nd, 2011 Beans from the garden for dinner.
Our Heirloom Apple Abandoned Orchard Adventure
Friday, September 23rd, 2011
Back at the end of our epic road trip this summer I asked Ryan if he could arrange for us to come back to the farm in the fall. It looked like the apples in the old orchard were going to be plentiful and what better way to spend our wedding anniversary than by picking apples? I think wood is the traditional 5th anniversary gift and we aren’t quite ready to buy the barn.
These days there are quite a few wineries in the County but originally it was known for it’s dairy farms and orchards. This original loyalist plot had both.
Sigh. I’d love to wake up to this view each morning.
Sigh. Barn Lust is as bad as ever. We really need to sort out how to make this barn ours.
Check out the daytime moon and the hops. If we ever get through this cider project maybe we’ll move on to beer.
Anyhow, back to the apples. We all took Friday off and headed out of the city along the charming Apple Route to spend 3 days climbing around in barns and falling out of apple trees. It was lovely. We walked and biked from tree to tree, tasting everything and picking bushels of the best ones. Eventually Ryan couldn’t resist any longer and hooked up the tractor and trailer to hold the ladder and carry back bushels of apples
As fun as those pick you own apple places with pie and corn mazes look, I promise this was better. Ryan says it was like the kind of exploring you do when you’re 12. I think he’s right. It made me want to build a tree fort and refuse to go in for dinner. We headed out in to fields in the morning only coming back to eat every once and a while. Poor Becca was worn right out by our antics.
The trees are all a little different but quite a few are huge full sized ones and we took turns falling out of this one. Ryan is the yellow smudge in the middle of this photo.
To add to our adventure, the blackthorn has escaped the hedgerows and seems to have developed a relationship with the apple trees, scratching and spiking anyone who dares to pick too many apples. I have read that you can use these dreadful berries to make wine if anyone wants to forage next year. (More about the blackthorn later in the week).
On a related note, check out the Hawthorn Honey Black Locust Tree (thanks Jenn and Almerinda). There are 3 of these “antique” trees on the property. The modern ones don’t have the spikes necessary to make the hedgerows impassable to cattle. Ouch!
I frequently look at google earth, and when standing in the orchards, I really can’t make rhyme nor reason of how it was organized. There are no tidy rows but there does seem to be a pattern of sorts. I think they are separate orchards and that stagered rows run on an angle to the property line. As things are rather over grown in places its hard to tell but I’m guessing soil conditions and natural grade changes factor into it.
There are at least 5 distinct grouping of trees including these 2 orchards of smaller trees that make these fairytale like paths. The branches arch over head and the ground is covered in windfall. It’s almost magical.
There’s a perfect row of apples down a long stretch along one side of the property.
Across from what used to be a neat and tidy row are small wild apple trees.
These ones were the sweetest most delicious things I’ve ever tasted. There were 8 apples on the whole tree and we ate them all.
Isn’t it beautiful how the grapes grow up though the trees? These United Empire Loyalists we certainly proficient at making libations.
I love how complete this orchard is. There were different types of apples for different purposes like eating, baking, making sauce, making juice and our main objective, of course, the cider apples. Some apples are for eating right away and some apples will keep all winter and even through the following summer. I think there were apples grown for their pectin and there’s one so dry it must have been for drying.
This apple was clearly grown for the dog to eat.
There are even some crab apples. This is a modern tree but crab apples were traditionally grown to add to the cider and to give colour and pectin to jams and jellies,
All in all, we picked 8 bushels of apples which is roughly 320 pounds. Personally I would have kept going but the car is only so big and there were also marvellous heirloom tomatoes to be sorted.
The cold nights of Prince Edward County are exactly what apples need. When we were up at the farm we could just leave them outside as there are simply so many apples that animals would rather eat the ones on the ground or on the trees. Now that we are home in Toronto, Raccoon capital of the world (no really) we are storing them in Rubbermaid containers lined with newspaper. They are outside on the porch. I take the lids off every morning so they can breathe and seal them up tight at night to protect them from the thieves. So far so good and they are ripening up nicely and should be ready to press within two weeks.
We’ve made some progress today identifying these apples over in our first post. There are some truly devoted apple enthusiasts out there on the internet and also in real life. We’ve been using the wiki apple articles along with Orange Pippin. We have so many books out of the Toronto Public Library but are still looking for a copy of the Apples of New York and would love some insight into what the Loyalists brought along to their new Ontario farms.
This weekend we are lucky enough to be taking 13 types of our most palatable mystery apples to an apple tasting which will certainly be fun and hopefully fruitful. Ha. Will let you know how it goes next week.
