It’s Apple Harvest Time!

September Evenings

Last night my husband and I picked apples. We didn’t go anywhere, just our front yard! Mainly, we have Cortland’s this year. We have enough to make pies and cider. Tomorrow, we’ll host a group  of friends for what is becoming an annual cider making party. Did you know it takes one five gallon bucket of apples to make one gallon of cider? It does! Maybe that is why cider is so expensive!

We have about 30 – 40 fruit trees, all in three rows residing in the side of our front yard that is a little micro valley. The trees seem to do well there.  Usually, we have Honey Crisp, Honey Gold, Cortland’s, Winesap, Sweet Sixteen, and Haralson’s. My husband mis-identified the tree the other day and we thought we had some Haralson’s to go with the Cortland’s, but that is not so. Cortland and Honey Gold apples are what our cider and pies will be made of this year!

Cortland Apples growing in our Wisconsin Home Fruit Orchard. Fall 2018.

Honey Gold Apples (Green) Growing in our Home Fruit Orchard. Fall 2018.

The apples are lined up ready for pie making later today. We usually peel, core, and cut the apples and freeze them in quart baggies. My husband and I use them to make pies over the winter months for Thanksgiving, birthday celebrations, and even a late winter treat, when a taste of a freshly grown apple warms you from the inside out.

The cider making is fun with friends. This is a tradition that goes back to my husband’s family when he was growing up. His family had apple trees and an apple press. Western New York is also apple country  – just like this area of the mid-west!  A few years ago, we bought our own cider press because cider making was an activity that we enjoyed as a family.

Cider flows into a used water jug. It freezes well, too!

Here is some of the used mash, after it has been through the press.

The press in action a few years ago (2015) when we had an abundance of apples!  We made 40 gallons of cider that year! Yum!

To go from this …….

to this……….is a wonderful thing!

Yes, September is apple harvest time in our house. It’s a wonderful thing to share with friends. Good Food, Good Times, Good Friends. Life doesn’t get much better!