The county gave our town a bunch of apple trees, about 20.
Most of them made it and they were full of apples this year.
Cortland, Braeburn and honey crisp.
Braeburns didn't produce much and many were picked before they were ready
The honey crisp got destroyed by japanese beatles and other bugs.
That kept them away from the cortlands. Which turned out great.
There was a bunch of apples left over at the end of the season.
Another friend had too many grany smiths and a mystery tree had a bunch of sweet/tart fruit that made great apple crisp.
Many were sliced/frozen but there were too many for that, so I made apple juice for the first time.
My buddy had a 3 gallon Juicy Fruit apple press that had sat for 10 years, he lent me.
Another buddy had a small electric meat grinder that he hadn't used in 10 years.
I spent a few hours chopping them up pretty small and running them through the meat grinder.
Then pressed the juice out and put it in bottles.
Had to just press a little, then go back and give it another twist every 15 minutes or 1/2 hour.
Out of about 1 1/2, 5 gallon buckets. I got a little over 1 gallon.
Left a couple bottle out on the counter for about 9 days in the semi cold kitchen.
And we tried some today. It was fizzy and sooo nice.
I thought the apple juice was great, but the cider really is a nice drink.
Working on a second batch, ran out of Cortlands but found some big sweet yellow apples.
That one has another tree growing from the root, with small, red tart, hard apples.
And I can still get some more granny smith apples.
I go through some fresh ginger and trim the tough parts off. Made some tea with the ends and added that.
It's not as good as juice from the first batch but the added ginger makes it nice.
I think it will make good cider to share with my friends.
I'll take some pictures to add to this post.
I can get more grannys, yellows and little hard reds, might make another batch.
This is a first for me. Permies is a good place to share this first.