Friday, January 29, 2010

Step into my Time Machine: Apple Cider the old-fashioned way

Sometime in the last succulent days of summer, Bob, Jessica and I went apple picking. Bob is friends with some of the wonderful people at Calliope Farm and they let us come use their apple press. In all we pressed about 9 gallons of cider, so we each took 3 gallons. Jessica and I let ours wild ferment into hard cider which I bottled in December and have been enjoying since. I think I let it go a little longer than I should have, but it didn't turn into vinegar (which Bob was intentionally going for with his); instead it turned into a tart, semi-dry sparkling beverage that from bottle to bottle probably ranges between 2 and 3% alcohol. Doing this, from the picking, to the pressing, to the fermenting and bottling, is one of those processes that really makes me feel complete, knowing that I'm doing something that humans have been doing for a long long time. It makes me feel rich.

I took these pictures on my Nikon SLR.










































































































































If I were a unicorn, I would live off of this foam. It tasted like apple-flavored clouds.