4th Annual Apple Pressing at the Schmidt Farm

So....we were at it again this year...our annual apple pressing with Jake and Suz....also in attendance were Kathy and Charlie...but alas there are no pictures of them...after they arrived we were so into the teamwork of the project that I neglected to grab my camera to shoot a few pictures of them...Next year???? lol....

 

 Jake pouring fresh squeezed soft apple cider into plastic containers to be later frozen for use through out the whole year.

 Isn't that color beautiful? The taste was pretty darned amazing too! So fresh!!!!!

 As you can see if was a beautiful sunny October day in Southern Oregon! A perfect day for working out of doors...

 I think the soft apple cider tastes much better out of a canning jar - I love the opaque fall color of it.

 This is what we started with! look at all the different kinds and colors of apples...Sapphire was keeping guard over them...hah!

 This is how it starts each year...a garbage disposal built into a table...we cut and pare out the ugly parts of the apples, put them down through the grinder of the garbage disposal and they fall into a bucket....This is called "Mast"

 Jake then puts the chopped apples (Mast) into the hopper of the press, and screws it down tight....the juice runs out of the bottom of the press into a clean metal bucket and what is left is called pomace, which are the solid remains of the apples.

 Of course we always have snacks of crackers and cheese and a little wine, while we work!

 Teamwork!!!!

 

 Here is the POMACE...Jake will sometimes take the Pomace and return it

to the apple press and press out even more juice!!!!!

 Emptying the pomace out of the bag that holds the mast before the pressing

 Suzanne grew more celery from a cut off end of organic celery bought at a market...first she starts it in a shallow dish in water like you see here, then she transplanted them into the ground....

You see the thing with our Annual Apple Pressing is you can't do it without one big beautiful mug of....Bloody Mary's....omg...I have to say that Suz is the QUEEN of making the best spicy tasty Bloody Marys!

Oh! what have we here? Part of the makings of the Bloody Mary...Vodka, Canned Tomato Juice...Spiced Canned Beans....yes please!

 One of their Winter cover crops at the Schmidt Farm.

 See? Here is the Celery I was talking about!

 Suz cutting pieces of celery for our Bloody Marys

 

 Suz in her kitchen making some really fine cocktails for us!

 

 Beautiful, Tangy and Tasty....YES PLEASE!!!!

 I let them taste test...as you see I was too busy drinking Dutch Brothers coffee to have a Bloody Mary....NOT!!!!!  (Jake, Suz and David)

I love the color of apples!!!!

 

This is David's 2nd year helping with the apple pressing.  I think he and I both sliced into our fingers at least once....I don't think Suz had any accidents and Jake (who is the smart one) sticks to the pressing of the apples and doesn't get anywhere near the apple cutters! Kathy also did some major cutting and I think she was quite handy with a knife too!!!!! So....next year I hope to take pictures of everyone and we're also hoping for a bigger harvest of apples.