Got out the old cider press last weekend and made a little cider. Apples were a bit immature, but the trees are dropping them early, I guess due to the extended dry period we've been experiencing. A neighbor down the road said I could have the apples and I couldn't see letting them go to waste. When we moved to where we now live, I had to start my apple orchard over again; I have about 50 semi-dwarf trees, both new and antique varieties about three years old, now planted. Hopefully, not too many years down the road, I'll have all kinds of apples to make cider from.
2thdoc,
Great pics. Something I always wanted to try but a cider press like yours is quite expensive. We wind up canning pints and pints of apple butter. But there is nothing like fresh squeezed cider. How do you store it? Canning, freeze or some other way?
Phil
Usually store it by freezing in gallon milk jugs; it keeps quite well by freezing. Another way is to toss a little yeast in it and let it ferment to hard cider and bottle it.
If you watch the classifieds, Thrifty Nickel, auction fliers, etc. you'll see old presses for sale every now and then. The least I've paid for one is about a $100. Paid $325 for the one pictured. Stripped the paint off it, made a few repairs to the wooden frame and finished it with polyurethane. The previous owner had lined the tray with stainless steel and added a gear reduction motor to run the grinder. If you find an old press, make sure the toothed cylinders in the grinder are not broken, or that the shaft the flywheel is on is bent. Most of the time the wood frames are in poor condition and will have to be repaired or rebuilt. The new presses being sold today are in my opinion inferior to the old timers, not to mention quite expensive.
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