Cider Fest 2025!

Well folks, as expected, last Saturday was Crazy! We had more than twenty families come over, from Church, homeschool, work, 4H and neighbors. We processed more than a ton of apples into who knows how much cider! We canned 100+ gallons the day of, and parceled out another 20-ish gallons for people to can at home (or simmer down into cider concentrate, which I didn’t know was a thing, but apparently it is. You simmer cider for several hours stirring occasionally until it is reduced by half volume, and then use it as a cider extract to add flavoring to baking recipes).

And now, for the pictures!

Auntie Mate flew all the way from Tennessee to help out! And she and Ellie are twinning!

That’s a lot of apples, but not the whole of it.

There is another stack from our friends in the foreground.

Mommy and Auntie Mate getting snacks and strainers set up.

Uncle Adam and one of our friends surveying the scene before the chaos begins. They pretty much ran the pressing operation.

Friends from work, Miss Noreen from CC, and our neighbors from across the Cul-de-sac.

The best cider comes from a mixture of apples, and every batch of cider is subtly different.

The chaos was actually pretty well orchestrated on this end.

Lots of willing hands to cut and grind the apples to keep feeding them into the presses.

Even the little guys got to make their fair share.

Seppi was so stoked to have so many boys his own age to play with.

Of course the little folks don’t stay at it for very long, but while they are working they work with great energy.

Then they stop for muffins and hot cocoa.

We had four presses going simultaneously through most of the day.

The mash from each of the presses would get dumped into either our little dump wagon to be fed to the cow, sheep and pigs. (Especially the pigs).

Some of the older boys made it their job to take the mash out to the animals.

Iris approves of this snack.

Meanwhile, the work goes on.

The vast majority of it went into our friends’ dump trailer and they took it back for their cows, since they have many more cows than we do. Nothing goes to waste.

Evie helping Father Kaufman. He grew up pressing cider and this was a blast from the past for him.

We had the 4H kids press their cider first, because it needed to be double strained for juice, and canned as juice in order to be entered in the fair. Here, Kathleen is explaining the finer details of the process to a group of 4H kids, before they go inside to can their juice project.

Hot stuff, coming through!

And some cider!

And this is what Ryan did most of the day.

Tried to get the cider to 190 degrees and not boil it.

Then carry the hot 5 gallon pots into the kitchen to turn over to the ladies.

Who ladled it into jars as fast as they could.

There were a lot of jars! A major improvement this year was letting people know to bring their own canning jars, and then we had a sign-in roster so that we could keep track of who brought how many, and so everyone could get their jars back.

This was a good idea of Kathleen’s. By the end of the day, no one could remember anything.

Alex was doing the happy dance.

So Kathleen set him to monitor the turkey fryers water-bathing the half-gallon jars. Half-gallons are the most efficient way for us to store cider, but they are too tall for a regular water bath canner, so we have to use the turkey fryers.

Rachel likewise spent most of the day monitoring the quarts in the black water bath canners. She was keeping track of which canners had jars in them, keeping them at a vigorous but not overly aggressive boil, and making sure each one ran for at least 15 minutes. And keeping track of Baby Katherine. No big deal.

More jars.

More jars.

More jars.

Oh, look! some wild things.

This is what happens when you venture where the wild things are.

So many wild things.

The wildest of the bunch!

The day wears on. The grownups are still at their posts.

The jars are beginning to accumulate.

And overflow their original storage area. It was about now, at 2 or 3 in the afternoon that we realized we were in trouble. Last year we canned 55 1/2 gallons of cider. This year we saw we had more apples, so we expected to do more canning, and accordingly bought another 12 gallons worth of half-gallon jars. Suddenly, by mid-afternoon, we realized we were going to be out of jars in about 5 minutes. Danielle heroically rushed out to the nearest hardware store and bought them out of half-gallon jars. She came back with 48 more jars and we filled them in half an hour. Then Father Kaufman ran out and got 12 more, which we also filled…

Meanwhile, the jars have to be labeled.

It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it.

Ryan and Kathleen, and a whole bunch of cider in between.

By now it is getting on towards dusk, and the weather turned wet. All the processing stations on the deck had to be crowded hurriedly under cover.

The last of the cider is being harvested.

The last few apples have been ground and are about to be crushed.

The mash is in the dump wagon, and we are hosing down all the stuff.

The people move over to the house to help with the canning, and Fr. Kaufman blesses the cider.

“V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who made heaven and earth.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

Bless, + O Lord, this creature cider, which thou hast deigned to produce from the fruit of the tree: that it may be a salutary remedy to the human race, and grant through the invocation of thy Holy Name; that, whoever shall drink it, may gain health in body and peace in soul. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

One of the kids fascinated by the task of monitoring the temperature of the cider.

She wasn’t the only one.

All the hoodlums came inside to play games, be rowdy, and complain about how hungry they were, as if they hadn’t had unlimited access to donuts, muffins, chips and soup all day long. (Don’t worry, Auntie Mate entertained them until we got around to feeding them pizza. They are more manageable when they are not hungry.)

As Baby John Paul so fittingly said (or rather signed) “All done.”

What are we going to do with all this cider?

Well, a huge chunk of it is going back to the people who helped make it, within the next few days as we can get it out to them.

The rest will go in the basement for storage over the winter. Adam is excited to be able to drink cider more than once per week for an entire year. Ryan is excited to try making hard cider.

As for the rest, if you are looking for some cider, reach out, we’ll work something out.