We just finished. For the last two mornings, we have been pressing all the apples we could scrape together from our orchard, a friend’s orchard and a tree growing on the road allowance. We borrowed the apple press from the Growers and Producers Association.
It is a grand old press very solidly made in the States. We bolted it to our deck and had all the feed bags of apples lined up. The first job is to grind the apples. The press has an integral grinder. I would throw in apples one or two at a time and my husband would spin the wheel that turned the grinder and the little chips of apples would fall into a bottomless metal basket.
Once the basket was full, we would put a heavy metal plate on top and then turn the screw driving it down and down to press the apples until the glorious, clear juice ran out into a bucket. Once we had all the juice we could squeeze from a batch of apples, we undid the screw and emptied all the apple chips into plastic tote boxes. We use this to feed livestock. There is far too much for our little farm so we gave some of it away to farming friends.
This apple pomace, for that is what it is called, is a delicacy enjoyed by horses, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and rabbits. If you don’t have any livestock, then the critters in the compost bin will love this for sure.
We haven’t pressed our own apples for a long time and buy juice from a local supplier who does a great job with her automated apple-pressing facility. This year, she said she might not be able to get all the apples she needed but assured us of one carbouy of juice. That is 21 litres. So, we ran around and picked like the dickens and got the GPA’s press.
Annual GPA membership for a household costs $20. The equipment is free for the use of members. Their list of equipment to aid farmers and gardeners is impressive. There is the apple press of course, a seed thresher for corn, beans and grains, apple picking pole and picking bags which are a Godsend when you are working to harvest tall trees, a walk-behind rototiller, a tincture herb press, an oat roller and GF mill, seeder, hoop-house pipe bender, really nice stainless-steel food dehydrator, a canbro cooler, oxalic atomizer for cleaning beehives, a thresher, sheep shears, a honey extractor, a nut cracker and a soil sampling probe. That is a lot of expensive and useful gear for $20!
The apple press alone saved us heaps of money. An inexpensive wine kit costs about $75 and makes about 30 bottles of wine. The cost per bottle is approximately $2.50. A carbouy of fresh, organic apple juice costs just the $20 membership fee and the pleasant time it takes to pick and process the apples. My husband worked out that using our own apples and the GPA’s apple press, he can make apple wine for .33 cents a bottle. The wine is lovely stuff and a big hit with our visitors from the city.
The GPA has a high-functioning web site where you can speedily purchase your membership as there is still lots of time to pick and press apples and use the other equipment. The GPA is holding a seed cleaning demonstration at the Old School on Saturday 12 October from 9:30 onward. I will be taking a bunch of seeds up to be cleaned and I recommend this to anyone who needs their seed crop cleaning.
The GPA also hosts Seedy Saturday which is a fun event to be held next year in January and there will be workshops, local seed vendors and a seed exchange where I get a great deal of the seed I use every year. Make sure you have some packaged seeds from your garden to bring to Seedy Saturday as you get to pick a package of seeds for every package you donate.
If you have read this far, I have a sweet treat for you. Apple crumble is an easy dessert to make and much beloved of all but here we have an apple crumble with a twist. This is Apple Custard Crumble. Peel core and slice about 8 apples and lay the slices in an 8” by 8” glass baking pan. Whisk 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 Tbsp of flour, 1 Tsp cinnamon, 2 eggs and one cup of milk. Pour it over the apples. Make the crumble of 2/3 cup of rolled oats, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 2 Tsp cinnamon, 1/4 Tsp nutmeg, 3 TBSP butter and a pinch of salt. Mix that all up until it is crumbly. Sprinkle it over the apples and bake at 350 for about 50 minutes until the crumble if golden. Serve warm or cold.
