Pressing Apples

Saturday my family got together (they started while I was taking goats to the sale barn) and pressed apples.

I think there were about fifty buckets of apples.  By the time I arrived, they had a nice assembly line going.

It started with washing the apples.

My Mom

The little farm had was a good help with that.

Little Farm Hand

Then the apples were cut into quarters.

My sister, niece-in-law, and nephew

After that, they got poured into the press.

My dad, son holding the little farm hand and my nephew

You use a drill to turn the mechanism that chops the apples into smaller pieces.

My nephew

Then the lid is put on it, and it gets pressed.  They keep turning it and forcing more and more of the juice out.

My dad and son

It comes out the bottom and gets collected.

Once it goes into the house, it gets pasteurized.

Then it can be put in containers.

I think they said the final total was about thirty-five gallons of apple juice.