Cider time. Autumn = Apples

Every year we borrow a neighbor's apple press and make cider from our apples and those we can glean from unharvested trees. It is a family affair and one that is work and fun deliciously combined.
This year is special as it is the first time 2 year old Lila can actually help in the process.
Today is the day - a storm is predicted and apples are ready, so this is it. Our semi-dwarf Empire apple is laden with zillions of small apples. They are sweet and crunchy. We have a box of Snow apples, pure white inside, and a couple boxes of the tart and mushy "mystery apple" from a tree that re-sprouted below the graft.
Jars are clean, the press is set up and we are ready to go. We pick apples and bring them up from the orchard. There are actually more than we expected.

First step is sorting and washing the apples. Any with bites in them, large bruises, or that are otherwise unacceptable get set aside for our chickens, compost, or a neighbor's pigs. The rest we place in a plastic bucket with holes drilled in it so we can easily rinse them with a hose.
Now the fun begins!

This press has an electric motor on the grinder. One of us washes apples, one (or two - a favorite kid job) feeds the apples into the hopper to be ground up. The ground apples fall into a cloth lined (old pillowcase) wooden basket beneath. There are 2 of these baskets. When one is full it is moved beneath the press, the cloth folded over, a wooden disk placed on top, and you turn the handle which turns the "screw" that presses down on the disk. Lila needs a lift to help turn the handle!
Beautiful golden apple cider runs out of the basket and into the pans we collect it in.
We run the pans full of cider into the house and funnel the juice into clean, disinfected jars, straining out any bits of apple as we go.
We leave extra space in the tops of the jars for expansion for the cider we freeze, and some we put in 1/2 gallon canning jars to Pasteurize for storing in the pantry.
Frozen cider, once thawed, tastes fresh as the day we pressed it, but fresh or thawed, you must drink it before it ferments. Pasteurized tastes wonderful, but not quite the same, and has a longer shelf life once opened. Best of all it takes no freezer space or electricity to keep.
Today's work resulted in over 20 gallons of cider to share! Wahoo!! Even so, we will probably do this one or two more times before we return the press.
The press we borrow is a Correll Cider Press.
These presses are the best! Our family is all pitching in so we can have our own, and we now have one on order that will be ready for us next summer.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
- Albert Camus,writer and philosopher (1913-1960)