Apple Pressing
Up in these North Carolina hills and out in the country, it's a tradition to grind apples to a pulp using an apple press to render the juice. Motorized machines are available, but this week a group of my friends used the hand cranked version. It had been purchased on a road trip at Cline's Antiques in Mount Pleasant for $125, an astonishing find! My good friend Sandy found it in a back barn-a prize in need of a few tweaks in order to function-but she knew from experience that the product would be a treat well worth the price and effort.
Our group of five (called the "Creekies" because we live near a confluence of creeks) had been harvesting throughout the month of October from a variety of trees, and we had baskets of apples, both red and yellow, firm and soft, tart and sweet. We baked apple pies, muffins and breads, canned applesauce and jelly, froze apple wedges and more, but in the end, there were apples leftover. Some go to horses and goats, but Sandy now has this press. She organized a pressing.
We gathered on a warm afternoon behind her house. Mary used a drill to tighten the screws on the crank plate and got the machine in good working order. Then she and I washed and quartered apples while Carolyn fed them into the grinder and Ruth turned the roller that crushed them into the basket below. Sandy cranked the press. We continued for a couple of hours, rotating jobs till the apples were gone. And, while it takes lots of apples to make a modest amount of juice, it is delicious, rich and round as an apple. It tastes just like what it is: the juice of fresh, never-sprayed apples not far from the tree. This year, we each got about a quart, but for next year...we've got a plan.
I took home the pulp (see above,) added water and cooked it down. So now what?...
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