Apple Cider

We had such a fun day yesterday. One of the secretaries at the WWAMI office lives on a farm with an apple orchard. Yesterday she invited all of the WWAMI students and their families out to her orchard to make apple cider.

It was the perfect day to be out in an apple orchard with the crisp air and sunshine. We couldn't think of anywhere we'd rather be.

Making the cider turned out to be a lot of work! I'll tell you the process: First we picked all the apples off the trees. Here is Brad shaking branches to get the apples to fall.

Lainy enjoyed the fresh air and helping pick apples. She was good about putting the apples in the wheelbarrow until she found this one. I guess she was hungry because once she had this one she wouldn't let it go.
After picking the apples, we cut out the bad parts and washed them in bleach. Then we rinsed them off, and they were ready for the mill.
Here is the cider mill. It was really cool because it wasn't electrical. We had to operate it by hand. This is a picture of the grinder.
Here is the apple cider press and the cider dripping into the bucket.

This is me operating the grinder.

We also had fun on the farm driving the tractor. . .

. . . and chasing chickens. It took Brad fifteen minutes to catch this particular chicken.

What a fun day! We made the most delicious apple cider I've ever tasted. We left with three gallons of it. I wish I could bottle up a cup for you all! Maybe we'll bring some home at Thanksgiving. . . if there's any left by then!