Our Ward had an apple pressing party a few weeks ago. We wanted to be able to contribute to the apple supply, so we asked around about trees that we could harvest from. A friend told us about a King apple tree near them that we could pick from, so Brad, Ben and I went to check it out. It was amazing!
The branches were so thick and well groomed. All the apples grew on the outside of the tree. Ben asked, "Can we get a tree like this?" I wish, Ben! It was probably at least 50 years old.
Check out them apples!
The tree was covered, and so was the ground. When we first drove up, there were three deer grazing on the fallen apples.
In about 20 minutes, we picked these three big boxes full!
The next day, we went over to the Bountiful Farm to make cider.
Washing the apples.
We added ours to this huge wagon load! The Hooyers went over to Quincy, WA to an apple orchard and brought back almost a full load of Honeycrisps. Other people brought different varieties to add to the mix.
Kylie, Jillian and Russ chopping the apples and cutting out any bruises.
Proof that Nate was there, too!
Carlyn had the job of pouring the cider into the containers people brought.
A closer look at the press, with the delicious cider pouring out!
Brad and Bruce preparing apples for the press.
This was maybe half of what we ended up with, before people started taking their containers home. I wanted to get a picture of at least some of it! We ended up taking home five gallons, and it is delicious! We put four gallons in the freezer since you have to drink it, freeze it, or can it within a few days or it will ferment.
The mashed up apples...or at least some of them! This was only one wheelbarrow load of many that went to the sheep, cows and chickens. I hope they didn't get sick from it!
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