PRESS on.....

A couple of Saturday's ago we spent the afternoon with our friends Jen and Janzen picking HUNDREDS (maybe thousands! At least it felt like it!) of apples to make juice. A friend of ours has an APPLE PRESS that he made from scratch and offered to let us borrow it.

The apples we were picking were very small and so we picked and picked and picked until the only ones left were unreachable.


How do I know they were unreachable? Because we (me and Jen) were in that tree as high as we could safely go or reach.

This is the apple press. Looks like something right out of pioneer days doesn't it? It was amazing!

McKay got right in there helping us in the process.



















Dave, McKay and Janzen working the press....

It seemed we needed about 25 apples for one ounce of juice! And I am NOT kidding!

So we kept picking AND picking...

It churns up the apples and then deposits them in that barrel. Those ( in photo) are what get pressed to make juice.















We had to strain it three times in cheese cloth to make sure it was clean and ready to process.

















We had to transport it in 5 gallon buckets (half full) so it wouldn't spill out.
We ended up with 20 gallons of juice once it was all processed.

I can NOT believe I forgot to take a picture of the finished product all in the half gallon jars! When I realized it, I was tempted to go down in the basement and bring them back up just for the photo...but I wised up!

I also ran the Mantua SPOOKTACULAR 5K RUN the same morning. My time was not my best since I have been recovering from the SWINE PIGGLY FLU and my lungs are still not back to snuff. I still let out an oink every now and then too. But I managed to place 2nd in my age division. I got 1st last year, but this year I was just happy that I finished! The wind was also blowing like crazy which did not help either. I almost bagged it, but I got a cool hoody out of it for going so I went. There were a few people dressed up in costumes. There was a clown in front of me the whole race and my goal was to catch up to that clown. I was on his heels right before we crossed the finish line but never managed to pass him. Maybe I need to wear a clown wig next year to see if it helps my speed....