Recipe: Homemade Apple Cider

This is more of a method than a recipe, but I had to share.

We have apple trees.  4 Macintosh, a Yellow Transparent, and a Jona Gold (which is not yet producing fruit - it was a present for The Boy for his 5th birthday.  Yes, he asked for an apple tree of his very own.  His wish was granted).

The apples are thick on the trees this year.  We decided to pick some last week, though it is really a bit early for them.

Then, I remembered that my mom had an apple cider press.  Dad used to use it to make apple wine and grape wine as well.  For a bit of family fun, we worked together to make some apple cider.  Honestly, I thought we would maybe get two cups of cider at the end.

We ended up with a bit more than a gallon.  The kids want to make more.  So do I.  It was time consuming, but all in all, super fun and also educational for all of us.

To make cider, start with washed whole apples.  We chopped them into hunks and discarded any bad parts and the stems, but didn't worry about a stray seed or two, since we were straining them anyway.  After the rough cut, we chopped them finely in the food processor, and then pureed them in a blender with a little added water.

Once we had the puree, it was time to transfer them to the cider press.

The press was lined with a straining bag, and then the press was slowly turned to release the cider.

CIDER!

All pressed out

We turned the bag over once during the pressing to make sure the liquid was all squeezed out.

That's really all there was to it!  It helps that we had a cider press available to us, but all in all, it is something I can recommend if you have a little time on your hands and a yen for something fun for the whole family.