Pressing Cider

It's halfway through November already, and getting cold and dreary and decidedly fall/winterish around here.

We had a few hard frosts and it even hailed one day. No snow yet, but it sure is getting cold!

On Saturday, my Great Uncle Gaylord invited us up (he lives next door) to have a cider pressing party and boy was it fun! And COLD! I never knew apple cider could be so cold and delicious!

None of us had really pressed cider before (besides Uncle Gaylord and my Dad) so we all got to learn how.

First, you get some apples.

These are from Gaylord's apple trees. They're "organic" in that they don't have pesticides used on them. :)

From left to right: Ellie, Dad, Ethan, Uncle Gaylord and my youngest brother Scotty

Dad helping Ethan turn the crank on the press

Uncle Gaylord cracking jokes. :)

You put apples into the hopper of the cider press and turn the wheel and it shreds up the apples into a kind of pulpy mess. That falls down into a pressing crate thingy (see how much I know about cider pressing?) and when it's full you slide it over to the press. You put a lid on the pressing crate and then turn the crank to exert pressure onto the crate, which squeezes the cider out into a canning pot.

Tim taking a turn at pressing the cider

Scotty bein' himself. ;)

Then, when the pot is full, you move it over to the straining table and pour it through a strainer. (Or a clean pillowcase, which is what we used.) Squeeze the juice out of the pillowcase and then ladle it into jugs ( a funnel is very helpful at this point!) and Bam! you have apple cider. 

We just leave it raw, we don't pasteurize it or anything, although you have to freeze it if you want it to stay good because it will turn and start fermenting in about 5 days if you don't freeze or can the extra.

What did we do with the leftover smashed apples? Feed it to the cows, of course!
Once the cider was pressed out of the apple bits, we took the pressing crate over and pounded the top out of it, letting the apples fall into a wheelbarrow.

My brother, Brian, pounding out the lid and the apple bits into the wheelbarrow

 Then we dumped the apple bits in the cow field and let the girls have a nice little treat. The kids loved having the cows so close! The cows weren't as excited as the kids. ;)

The cider is SO good! We drank it right as it was dripping out of the pressing crate, into our cups and it was cold and sweet and delicious. 

The weather was frigid too- somewhere in the upper 30's so we had to keep running inside and warming our hands at the woodstove so our fingers wouldn't get so cold they didn't work.  Mine actually got so cold they couldn't bend at one point, so I had to take a break. Squeezing that cider through the pillowcase was a chilly job!

We ended up getting around 12 gallons of  cider, which is more than we expected. We've been enjoying it immensely- warm, cold, putting it in muffins and bread and using it in gravy.  We're saving some for Thanksgiving too, to drink in fancy cups with dinner. :)

I'll be back tomorrow and Saturday with some recipes - it's been a while since I posted any so I'm giving you two- Squash Enchiladas and then Apple Cider Pumpkin Spice muffins!
Have a fabulous Thursday.

A Trip to the Mountains

A few days ago my parents had to go over the mountains to pick some elk meat that my dad had dropped by the processor after getting his elk last month, and the kids and I got to go along. We'd been cooped up in the house for a few days and were starting to go a little stir crazy, so this was the perfect opportunity to get out of the house and have a good time.

On the ferry deck

                                                                                 

                 

The view from the ferry towards Everett

Ellie looking carefully down at the water

The tallest mountains had a dusting of snow on them. :)

We had so much fun!
We picked up the elk meat at Owen's Brother's, then went and visited Teanaway, which is a valley just over the ridge from Cle Elum. It's gorgeous, and I grew up camping there with my family nearly every year.

There are a bunch of ranches with cute farmhouses and pretty barns, gorgeous views of the mountains and  more often than not you will find wild turkeys, deer or elk grazing in the meadows along with horses or cows.


At the campground we got out and explored and it was so much fun to see the kids have fun running around playing where I spent so many fall days riding bikes, climbing trees and swimming in the river.

The fall leaves were just gorgeous!! 

Teanaway River

More pretty yellow leaves

The kids found a bouncy log and had fun playing on it 

We walked across this log to get to the other side of the river.
 The kids thought that was SO cool!
I thought it was a little scary, but still cool. 

This is "The Shoe Tree". For whatever reason, people have been putting shoes on this tree for probably 20 years.
 It's just a big tree at one of the campsites that's become a novelty. :) 

We headed for home as the sun sank behind the hills, looking forward to next spring when it's warm enough to go camping again and to experience the beauty and adventure Teanaway has to offer. :)

Fall is Here!

It's officially fall, my favorite season!

The mornings are chilly, with fog wafting over the fields and the days still mostly sunny and warm.
It frosted this morning for the first time, and boy did the heat from the woodstove feel nice this morning as it warmed our sleepy house!

I love fall.
I love the changing colors, the coolness of the outdoors, getting to wear sweaters and seeing pumpkin stands on the side of the road.
I love making apple crisp for dessert and chicken soup for supper, with homemade biscuits and settling down for a nice lively card game after dinner with my family.
I love seeing my breath in the air as I exhale, the crispness and chill that tries to creep into my bones but is banished as soon as I step in front of the toasty warm wood stove with a cup of hot tea in my hand.

The Italian Prunes are ripe on the tree and my mom and I picked all of the good ones a couple of days ago. There were quite a few, so we decided to make prune (or plum? what's the difference, anyway?) butter.

We made some in the crockpot, let it cook overnight and....its kinda gross. It looks good here, but when it was done, it just wasn't very good.
It wasn't totally gross, as in 'just can't eat it or I"ll gag', but I'll be honest: if there was another choice to put on my bread, I'd take it.
So....we put it in the freezer (because that's what you do with food that you don't really like but don't want to throw out just yet) and might make some muffins or something out of it.
I'm kinda disappointed because it smelled amazing and looked really good, but when we tasted it...yeah. Not so good.

In other news,
Monday was Tim and my (Tim and I's? Mine and Tim's? Grammar help??) 7 year anniversary and we went out on a lunch date to celebrate.
We had lunch at this cute little bakery in Coupeville and then walked on the pier, then went thrifting.
Here are a few pictures from that, it was a gorgeous day!!

The Coupville Pier

That bird sitting up there is a Blue Heron

Gorgeous, Huh? I still kinda feel like we're on vacation...haha it's just so beautiful everywhere you go. I can't believe I took this all for granted when I was a kid. It's so nice to be back. :)

Hey, next week is Kid's Clothes Week Challenge, and I'm going to be participating again!

If you want to know more about it, check out the Elsie Marley blog and sign up, it's so fun!
You sew an hour a day for a week and see how many things you can make for your kiddos. (Or grandkids, or friend's kids.)
I'm going to be making Christmas stockings and maybe some doll clothes, and possibly something else if I can find anything cool on Pinterest, which I'm sure won't be hard. ;)

That's all for today's ramblings, come back in a few days for something new!