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.

Making Pear Cider With Help from Tillie

This weekend it was time---time to make pear cider. We have no apples this year due to a late freeze, but the pears are abundant. I canned some, have about 3 bushels in the cellar, gave some away and the tree is still full. Pear cider doesn't have the spiciness fullness of apple cider but it's still a tasty drink and well worth making. Most years we make a few gallons of pear and apple combined and we like it too.

Larry got the equipment set up while I rounded up jars and got things ready in the house. Tillie was excited by all the hubbub and helped by being completely underfoot the entire time.

She managed to tip the basket a few times before we were through, got under my feet, and generally had a wonderful time.

We finished up with about 8 gallons of cider before we had to stop and move on to other things. We'll make more before it's over though; I just hate to see the pears go to waste.

This year I brought the cider inside, heated it to boiling, poured it into canning jars and then processed it in the water bath canner for 10 minutes. We decided last year that we prefer the canned cider--so much easier to use that way. No added sugar, no added anything--just juiced pears. That's the best part of cider--100% natural.

Sunday: Apples and Pears

After no rain at all for so long the soft rain on Sunday felt like a blessing on our skin. I can only imagine how the plants and the soil felt.

We had a lot on the to-do list this weekend and surprisingly we got it all done. First was additional cleanup at the cabin which we did on Saturday.

Then it was on to putting up food. While the gardens are pretty much done with the exception of the peppers, the apple tree and pear tree are loaded. So far we've made about 30 gallons of cider and there are still plenty of apples and pears.

So Sunday was designated as Apples and Pears day. While Larry worked outside on cider (and stacking logs, an ongoing project to organize the logs from the cabin), I worked inside on mincemeat, pear conserve and applesauce.

I made green tomato mincemeat, my favorite kind. Instead of suet, I used venison in the mixture, just as I did the last time I made it. The result is tasty and spicy. You can find the recipe I use on this blog post.

The tomatoes were from the farmer's market because mine are long gone. I made one and a half times the recipe, ending up with 15 and a half pints. I loved the bright green of these tomatoes, and they were good and firm, too. 

 This year I added a couple lemons to the mix as well. The color as I chopped was a visual treat; just wish the apples had been red. But in the end, it doesn't make much difference, because once ready for cooking, the mixture looks like this:

But once it's cooked? Ah, rich, spicy brown.

Next was pear conserve. This is a recipe I concocted a couple years ago and it was so good that we hoarded jars of it to use on special occasions. The combination of pears, orange peel and juice, red cherries and spices is a taste treat, especially on a warm biscuit. It's so pretty in the jars, too.

No photos of the cooking process this time, but you can see my recipe with photos by clicking here.



I'm still working on making applesauce for apple butter cooking sometime soon, and I think I've very near my goal of 60 quarts. I cooked another half of a bushel yesterday, and hope to do one more bushel by the end of the week. My only concern is that these are all yellow apples, and I am not sure my apple butter will cook up to the rich brown color it usually does since there are no red skins lending color to the process. I guess we'll find out come cooking time.



After the day's work, it was good to relax with homemade corn bread and vegetable soup in front of our first fire in the fireplace since last April. There is no place in our home as cozy as the log room. I'm wondering if the new room will be as welcoming and if it is, how we will choose between the two in the evenings.

Cider Making 101

First, start the day with a good country breakfast on the porch: fresh eggs, homemade biscuits, bacon, honey butter, fresh peach jam made by my sister Theresa, apple cider and hot coffee. Hannah helped get everything ready.

Then get the apples. Amy and Larry head up into the tree to shake apples down.

Next pick up the apples, wash them in a big washtub,

and grind and squish.

Let the pets help--from a distance.

grind and squish some more, strain the resulting juice into jugs, tape the lids tightly shut, and freeze.

Then get more apples...

hang out in the tree for pictures,

 and if you're Haley, go all the way to the top!

Then grind and squish some more, until all 15 jugs are filled, everyone is sticky and full of good cold cider.

Last, get out the grill and the chicken and put Derek to work. Make potatoes in mushroom-herb sauce, a big tossed salad, garlic bread with cheese spread, sit down on the porch and the deck, and eat.

That's how we make cider at our house, and I sure wish you could have been there with us.

You can see photos and stories from the last time we made cider here.

Cidermaking : Part 2

Few words needed for this post! Step by Step to Cider:

Step 1: Wash the apples.

Step 2: grind the apples (yes, you can put them in the hopper whole).

Step 3: press the apples.

Step 4: catch the juice.

Step 5: drink up!

Actually, we put our cider into plastic gallon water jugs we've been saving. We leave some head room in the jugs and tape the lids on securely with duct tape.

The the jugs go into the freezer--because this juice is unpasteurized, it needs to be frozen and kept refrigerated after thawing or it will turn to vinegar (or to hard cider, but that's another story--and something I have not tried.)

We ended the weekend with 30 gallons of fresh-pressed cider. Everyone took some home, and there's plenty in the freezer.

And a lot more apples still on the trees to make more!

Or maybe to make apple butter...

Cidermaking : Part 1

Morning dawned with a heavy dew and lots of promise.

The cider-making crew got to work, even though afternoon temps were in the high 80's. Our mill was bought second-hand--the lady had only used it once. These Jaffrey mills are still available brand new. (I wonder how much a new one costs, though.)

Apples in the grinder...

..equals cider in the jug. Mmmmm, good!

And the day ended as beautifully as it began. Except that after only a few hours work, we had about 15 gallons of cider in the freezer.

Rain at Last, and Thoughts of Fall

After three weeks of dry, dry weather, we are finally getting some rain from the leftovers of Tropical Storm Fay. It's too late to save most of the vegetable garden, but pretty much everything was finished anyway.

The only things left in the garden are tomatoes, peppers, beets, some new lettuce that should be eating size next week, the Bloody Butcher corn that will, I hope be used to make corn meal, watermelons, cantaloupes and pumpkins. And herbs, of course. Now that I look at the list, I guess there is still a good bit still growing.

Cidermaking in 2006--goodness, Clayton and Grace have changed since then!

The weather is certainly turning to Fall, and doing it early. Trees are already showing color due to the very dry weather and the heat the past week. Larry dug the potatoes, let them cure and put them in the potato bin in the cellar. We had one big one baked for dinner tonight and it was delicious (we grow Red Pontiacs).

The hogs left for the slaughterhouse on Sunday. I wish I had pictures to share, but unfortunately I let Hannah take photos while I prepared breakfast for the hog wrassling crew. From the noise and later reports, it must have been quite an adventure in the piglot.

The turkeys are now ready to dress out, and that's on the agenda for this weekend. It's been about 15 years since we last raised turkeys so I am hoping I remember how to do it. We have four, and I am considering raising about 25 next year so that we will have our own source of meat and not have to buy so much chicken.

And Derek's apples are ready to make into cider. I expect ours are ready too. We made it two years ago and it was a lot of fun and not much trouble. We were able to purchase a very slightly used cider mill that year, and with this year's crop will probably make enough cider to recoup the cost of the mill if you figure the price of the cider we produce at $4 a gallon. The first year we made 30 gallons, and since we paid only $250 for the cider mill, we only need to make about 35 gallons to recover our investment in the mill. I wish in a way that we still had the pigs, though--they would have loved the plummies left after the pressing.

Another project looming has nothing to do with gardens and harvest, but everything to do with preparing for winter. We purchased the gas line to begin the task of running free gas from our well to the house. This is no small undertaking, and since we know exactly nothing about what we're doing, it's a little scary. We'll be checking with our neighbors to see how they did it before we start, but I still expect this to be a time-consuming and probably stressful undertaking. And in the end, we still don't have any gas appliances! But one step at a time. First the gas, then the appliances.

Larry is lobbying for a gas furnace to head the list. He seems to be dreading getting in wood this year. Well, we are getting older and it's not an easy task. Usually he's onto it early in September, but last year it was October before he started. I don't expect we will be able to purchase and install a furnace this year, however--the funds are just not there at the moment. But I'm looking at them, trying to figure out how all this stuff works. So it may come sooner than I think.

The weekend promises to be busy, with all my sons coming home (I hope) for the holiday, cidermaking, turkeys to dress out, and I know the guys will be doing some serious golfing. Cookouts, a bonfire, and memories will make up the evenings. I'm looking forward to it.

Old-time Apple Cider: Strange Ingredients

We didn't make any cider this year. The apple trees were hit hard by frost, and the drought that has continued from summer into the fall months ruined any crop there might have been.

But at Rachel's Antiques in Ripley I happened on a 1919 text called Homemade Beverages, by Albert A. Hopkins. The variety of drinks offered to an industrious maker is astounding. A whole chapter is devoted to cider--and not just apple cider. There is orange cider, cherry cider, pineapple and quince cider, raisin cider, cheap cider (hey, that's what the author calls it!) and artificial cider.

The apple cider recipe had ingredients that raised my eyebrows--isinglass, (in cider?) calcium sulphite (to keep it sweet) and olive oil. And then bisulphite of lime to stop the fermentation when it's reached the proper point. And glucose to sweeten if desired. Sounds like a chemcial bath!

The "artificial cider" is really interesting: something called Catechu, alum, honey, water and yeast are suggested to make "a very pleasant drink."

(Catechu, according to the Wikipedia is "(also known as cutch, cashoo, or Japan earth) an extract of any of several species of Acacia—but especially Acacia catechu—produced by boiling the wood in water and evaporating the resulting brew.)

Then when fermentation of this artificial cider is complete, the author advised the addition of a solution of oil of bitter almond, oil of cloves, caramel, and alcohol (which can be replaced by "any good Bourbon whiskey"--ouch).

Now if this entire concoction doesn't sound deadly to you, it sure does to me. I wonder how on earth people got their hands on such ingredients? I doubt that today we would have access to most of them--and probably a good thing!

A quick search online revealed that this book was reprinted in 2001. Scary thought, although there are other recipes in it that sound pretty harmless.

A safer-sounding recipe called Apple Water Ice that actually might be very refreshing is offered in another tome from Rachel's called Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis' Cookbook, published in 1908.

Here's the recipe. Try it at your own risk:

6 large tart apples, 2 cupfuls sugar, 4 cupfuls water, 2 lemons. Put the apples, sugar, and water on to boil, added the grated yellow rind of one lemon. Cook until the apples are reduced to a pulp, take from the fire, drain carefully without squeezing. Add the juice of the lemons. When cold, freeze.

There are lots of other recipes for "ices" too and all of them sound like they might be tasty--or at least, safer than the cider recipe above!

She offers a Cider Ice too--combine 1 quart cider, 1 cupful orange juice, 1/2 cupful lemon juice. Dissolve 1 1/2 cupfuls sugar in the cider, add the juices, mix the ingredients and freeze. Sounds simple, and somewhat similar to my own favorite fall punch.

The Cider Punch I make is a recipe given to me by my friend Suzy McGinley. It's quick and easy and kids love it:

Combine cider, orange juice and ginger ale to your taste. Add apples and oranges sliced crosswise and cinnamon sticks to float in the punch bowl for garnish, and there it is. How easy can it be? And it sounds a lot safer than Mr. Hopkins' concoctions!