Cider

Our apple tree drops its apples early.  Nearly all have fallen now except for the highest ones.  Mostly these jersey apples drop to the ground, bruise, rot, attract insects and get eaten by squirrels.

The apple tree is never sprayed and the apples always have some sort of blight on them.  We throw thousands of them into the compost.  However, this year we seem to have had a bumper crop and the apples are larger and better than usual.  Some years we've made apple sauce, sometimes pie, mostly nothing.  Sometimes we feel guilty about this, mostly not.  Although this year we decided to actually use them and make cider.  We borrowed a press and had the kids work with friends to make the cider.  We pressed about 3 or more gallons and if we can get the rest of the apples off of the tree, we can probably make twice as much.  Anders and his friend Junie worked the hardest.  Kuba and his friend Jasper started out as helpers, but soon turned into players, and started swimming in the water we were washing the apples in.   It didn't matter...the cider was delicious whether you were an apple gatherer, apple cutter, apple washer, apple presser, or just a plain old playful kid buzzing around the process.