Last weekend we were invited to an apple cider pressing party, bring your own apples. Our favorite place to pick is Rocky Ridge Orchard in Bowdoin, as much for the pumpkin donuts as for the apples.
It's about a twenty minute drive from our house, unless you're riding in one of these classics!
Before harvesting our apples, we had roast chicken sandwiches on the patio overlooking the orchard. The maples were in peak color, and it was unusually warm, mid 60s. Autumn is my favorite time of year in Maine, but it's bittersweet, watching the leaves fall, knowing that winter is so long.
After years of practice, my daughter is an expert picker. We like Cortlands the best for eating, but any apple will work for cider, even fallen bruised ones.
photographer
herself,
my daughter
insisted
on
turning
the camera
on
me!
and learned how to press cider.
Two grocery bags of apples
make one gallon of cider.
The apples were dropped in the top
and cranked into the catch bucket
(the pulp was saved for the chickens.)
The juice dripped out the bottom
and was filtered before decanting.
It was the best cider ever. Cheers!
Blog Watch: Congratulations to Kristen Lindquist, this year's winner of Maine's Postmark Poetry award! You can sample her haiku poems and occasional nature photos on her blog, Book of Days.
I loved that second photo of the classic! :-)
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
Thanks for the shout out, Sarah!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun way to spend an autumn afternoon! I've never tried my hand on making cider myself, but I've sampled some fresh-pressed cider, and it's delicious. Great photo of you!
ReplyDeleteHow pretty! I always love your photographs.
ReplyDeleteWe're going to the cider mill this weekend. I love this time of year.
Fabulous photo of you, Sarah. And the shot of that hillside covered with trees in seemingly technicolor shades of autumn color - is that for real?!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun with beautiful fall scenes and that delicious fresh pressed.....
ReplyDeleteWhat a great classic New England thing to do! I don't know if it's technically a "New England" thing but it seems like it is. I've never done this and would love to try it sometime. Sounds delicious!
ReplyDeleteAll, thanks!
ReplyDeleteAmanda, yes those colors are real. I don't like images that are over manipulated in Photoshop. They look fake. I use Lightroom, when needed, only to make the image match reality.