Today we processed some apples into homemade apple cider. We combined the event with a Cub Scout requirement for the Bear Den. The kids had a lot of fun sorting the apples and removing the bad apples from the bunch. This was a smaller batch than what we did last year, due to the upcoming move. Last year I made 15 gallons of cider which I fermented into hard cider, on top of some additional regular cider.
Once the apples were washed and sorted, then it was time to grind them up. I don’ have a picture of them using the grinder, but you can see it on the ground in the pictures below.
The grinder, known as the “maximizer” grinds the apples into chunks which increases the juice yield.
Our friend and fellow Cub Scout, B, pressing his apples.
Garrett enjoyed some frozen blueberries for a snack before his nap.
Evan took a turn cranking down the press, followed by big brother.
Out of the three bags of apples, we got about 4 gallons of juice. The bags of seconds were $8 each, so not a bad yield. The kids asked what we were going to do with the rest of the apples. I said we were going to convert them to eggs! The chickens were quite thrilled to get the pile to pick through.
