In spite of the drought, we had an abundance of apples this year. My husband picked them all before frost. He put four 10-gallon pails in the basement, gave some to Anne and some to a friend, and put the rest out on the end of the driveway for anyone to take. I have already put eight quarts of sliced apples in the freezer for pies or crisps. The rest are waiting to get eaten or to be made into apple sauce.
I have been craving apple cider but have not bought any because of the price. Yesterday I decided that I would try making my own.
I quartered enough apples to fill my pressure cooker two thirds full. Then I filled it with water to cover the apples and let them simmer on the stove for three hours. No work to that. It was Sunday, after all. But the labor part was yet to come. After cooking and mashing as best I could, I strained the pulp through a mest strainer. Then I restrained it through the mesh strainer and a layer of cheese cloth. It was messy because each time I emptied the strainer I had to rinse it off before reloading it. With the cheese cloth it was even tricker since I had only the one piece of cheese cloth left. I had to rinse it out as well and then try to get it stretched out again. I did save the apple sauce left after the cheese cloth strain, since by that time all of the seeds, stems and skins were removed. After all of that I was left with a gallon and a pint of cider.
I had not added any spices, sugar or oranges to the brew as many recipes called for, since our apples were sweet enough, and I already consume enough sugar. I used a mix of both Haral Red and Northern Spy apples. The result was sweet enough but tasted a bit watery. Still, it satisfied my desire for cider.
Would I make some again? Not this year for sure. Perhaps in the future. But I think I will use all Northern Spy apples next time. Now time to scrub the sticky floor.
Otherwise, I have been trying to finish embroidered dish towels for our mission group craft sale, and reading, reading, reading.
I finished The Evolution Hoax Exposed. Glad to give that one away. I am too old for such small print. Then I read Seymour Reit's Guns for General Washington so that I could pass it on to my granddaughter, who is studying the Revolutionary War in social studies. Interesting that the author was also the writer behind the Caspar, the Friendly Ghost cartoons which I watched daily as a child. Also interesting because the main characters were Henry and Will Knox, and I am sure that Fort Knox must be named after one of them. Now I know who they are. I had purchased this book when Anne was homeschooling but had never read it myself. What a sacrifice they made for the cause of the Revolution.
Now I am reading The Life of Washington by Josephine Pollard (McLoughlin Brothers, 1893, reprinted by Beautiful Feet Press). George did not chop down the cherry tree, he only gouged it with his axe. And yes, his family did highly prize honesty. I just finished Chapter 3, which included the story of his trip from Williamsburg to a French outpost on Lake Erie on behalf of Virginia Governor Dinwiddie. It was no easy journey. One cannot help but admire the heroic effort that it cost.
I have not made it to the basement to finish my card bases yet. Little by little they will get done. But I have been giving them away almost as fast as they have gotten finished. Not sure how many will be left for the sale!
