Click here to read Cider Days, Part One

The internet search for a local cider press yielded exactly one option: Sally’s Cider Press in Harmony, PA, about an hour and a half away. They only press on Saturdays through the end of October, so on Friday I got busy sorting and packing apples.

Those buckets of apples that had been stored downstairs for a month needed to be gone through, leaves clipped off, and bad ones thrown out. There were surprisingly few bad ones, but unlike when we did our own pressing and cutting, we couldn’t just cut out the bad spots for this cider pressing. Twisted, ugly apples were fine, and so was mild bruising, but any apples with rotten spots were culled. The truck was packed the night before–pressing starts at 8 AM and we figured there would be a line.

I also picked some now ripe apples from the Winesap tree, some from our old green apple tree that no one knows its variety. (Yellow transparent? Grimes Golden? Rhode Island Greening?–I really need an apple DNA website…) Mr. H.C. had picked the crabapple clean two days before, and I threw in some of the Jonathans and misshapen Honey Crisps that we had left.

We pulled up at Sally’s Cider Press at 7:45 with about ten vehicles in front of us: everything from a dump truck filled with apples to small SUV’s with 4-5 tote bags. Sally’s will press any amount with a minimum fee of $25.

It was a beautiful mid-September day with everyone shedding their hoodies about 10:00. It was just about then that it was our turn…

The owners were so nice to talk to–Mister complemented us on our variety and told us that they have been so busy this year, it’s been overwhelming. We talked about the amazing apple season and he noted that last year they were lucky to press three trucks a day. I agreed. Last year, I said, we had no apples. Sally cheerfully took our photo while we filled the containers. We ended up with 24 gallons of cider, for which we paid $78. It’s a solar powered mill that does UV pasteurizing, so if we wanted to, we could resell it.

Eleven gallons went into the freezer; I’m canning three or four gallons; I’m fermenting four gallons (First timer!); and that leaves 4-5 gallons to drink and give away. (And, of course, later we found another large bin of apples that had been sorted, stashed away, and forgotten.)

So both ways of cider making were fun — and exhausting in their own ways. We’ve still got apples on two trees, but it’s manageable now. And I’ll let you know how my fermenting experiment goes…