Monday 17 October 2011

NO more apples PLEASE

Sorry to have been absent these last few days, it has been manic here.  Thankyou so much Laura for mentioning my blog, and thanks to those who have been over to visit and follow.   So what have I been so busy doing you ask.  Well let me see - mainly apples it seems - more picking and storing; picking up fallen apples and sorting them into those only fit for the compost heap, those fit for feeding pigs (our neighbour has several pigs and we send them up to him for them) and saving the decent ones for our use.  I have taken several pictures of my endeavours this time but have yet to master getting them up here - going to spend some time tomorrow trying to get it right.  Oh, and I spent soem time peeling, coring and slicing apples to dry in our home made drying machine (for a picture of this go to my other halfs blog Glanwili Farm) - So that was Saturday.

Sunday was our local permaculture groups apple day, we all met up at one of the members homes and set up three apple presses on the lawn (thankfully the weather was reasonably kind to us).  A washing station was set up and a chopping station.  We then split into groups and work began - first apples were washed and sorted (rotten ones discarded); then over to be chopped (this is where I spent my day); from there the apples went to the 'scratting' machine to be mashed up and then finally over to the presses to be squeezed - the juice being collected into containers.  The day was punctuated by a shared lunch (we all take an offering of food which is set up on a table and we all tuck into a veritable feast).  By the end of the day we had pressed approximately 100 gallons of juice - that's a lot of juice and a lot of apples.  We finished, tired but satisfied.  A fantastic day amongst great friends and like minded people.

Right now I never want to see another apple again - well at least not until tomorrow.


Bye for now.  :)

4 comments:

Laura said...

We need pics of the apple line... any taken?
Lx

Susan Kane said...

I do understand.
When I was a teenager, making apple butter en masse was an annual weekend thing. 12 bushels of golden delicious apples, a gazillion quart jars to wash, and a monster iron cauldron--my hands were so tired by Monday. But it was a delicious experience.
Now I stick to the crock pot recipe. Fun blog.

Melissa Sugar said...

Sounds wonderful. Now I am really hungry

Pauline said...

Laura - still have not mastered pictures yet, need some clear headspace time to figure it, oh and of course some decent pics.

Susan - Sounds like great fun, amazing what we remember, for me childhood memorys are of picking bags and bags full of blackberries and getting scratched to pieces, it was great fun though.

Melissa - it is a great time, although I have complained of the amount of apples this year, I would not really miss it for the world - tremendous fun with great people.