Covid Journal, Day 175: Cider Time!

Sunny and 67. We had beautiful weather all weekend, perfect really.

So perhaps this week I can get back to blogging. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, surprising really as we continue to try to social distance and stay home. But we needed stock for our booths; we needed a new van; we needed seeds and chicken feed and gasoline and some other things, so we have had to go out more than we'd like. And with the virus on the rise in our little state, it's been kind of nerve-wracking. 

But the past two days were home time, working on canning the produce still coming in from the gardens. I put up pepper relish--a lot of work for 3 1/2 pints only to have one jar break in the canner. I also did some pickled peppers and am waiting to see how we like them. I froze the remainder of the 1/2 bushel Larry picked. Then there was a small batch of pasta sauce with the peck of tomatoes, and green beans snapped ready to cook. That was Sunday.

The next project, before we started.

Yesterday was cider time. Our young neighbors out the ridge had gotten several bushels of apples from a friend who'd cut the tree down because "it was messy." They wanted to make cider, so we set up our mill and the rest of the things needed, and they came over yesterday with their apples. After making their cider, we decided we might as well make ours--the mill was ready and all the supplies were on hand, and we had young help!

The little girl here is a great-niece of our friends, and was so funny. We completely enjoyed her, and their son as well who was a big help throughout the whole process. The little one had her hands into everything, doing her best to help, getting so muddy that she was soon down to her diaper, chattering and generally keeping us on our toes. I was amazed that she was barefoot and walking comforably on the gravel--she hates shoes so her feet must be like leather.

The tree in the first photo above was loaded with apples--I believe it's a Stayman Winesap variety. We also have a yellow apple tree that we grew from seed some 45 years ago, and it too was full of apples. So apples were shaken out of the trees, and more cider was made. We ended up with 14 gallons in all, which we split 50-50. We also have 4 1/2 bushels of apples in the cellar; 4 bushels for apple butter, and 1/2 bushel for pie apples and apple preserves. We have plenty of sauce already in the cellar. 

I hadn't expected this to turn into an all-day venture but since it did I scrambled to cook enough food for everyone. Fortunately I had made some chopped apple bread Sunday so everyone enjoyed that in the morning. Then I went inside around noon and put together a quick baked pita casserole, cooked the green beans prepared the day before, cut up watermelon, got out some bread, made sweet tea, and that was lunch. The cider crew finished up just as the food was ready. Perfect timing.

Then it was cleanup time, and processing the cider. Our friends took their home to do, and Larry and I had ours done pretty quickly. We ended up with 29 1/2 quarts. They are now all over the kitchen, awaiting cleanup, rings removed and the date written on the lids.

It was a good couple of days, but today I think I'll rest up a bit. Maybe do some apple pie filling for the freezer. And do a lot of porch-sitting.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.