It's that time of the year again, though the dry hot year has reduced the number and size of apples I am collecting this year, I am still making Apple Cider. To make up for the lean year, I have acquired access to another apple tree. A friend of mine bought a house with an apple tree, and they have no way of using all of the apples. Enter me, the friendly neighborhood apple acquirer-er. All for the low cost of two Apple pies (which admittedly I had to talk them into, they were just happy to have some one to take their apples!)
As this was a leaner year and the apples are smaller, I am hoping, that the flavours of the apples will be more intense (though that isn't based on empirical evidence, its just a hope. One that I hope pans out)
Work begins this weekend. I am hoping to have finished collecting apples by Friday from my other sources. Saturday morning I hope to strip mine the new tree, and by the afternoon I hope to be smelting the apples into apple pulp (not to be confused with apple sauce, I wring all the juice out!) and apple cider.
This year I hope to make some Spiced Apple Cider, and as usual, can it all to be enjoyed throughout the coming year.
Fun Fact: Apparently, from my searching of the Inter-Webs, Apple Cider is just unrefined, unstrained and/or unpasteurized apple juice. From here, the Cider undergoes one of the following pathways. Sold as Apple Cider (which has a shorter life span if it is true Cider), it can also be spiced with cinnamon, cloves, or other seasonal spices for Spiced Apple Cider, it can be fermented for Mulled Apple Cider, or as the bulk of it goes, refined into Apple Juice. The refining typically pasteurizes it, but most importantly it removes all of the floating bits, leaving the crisp, golden colour that we are used to seeing.
