Our Story
We have been making cider now for 8 years. It all started when we asked a neighbour, who has a small orchard, what he did with all his apples. He replied ‘they are a pain really, we eat some, give some away, but there are far too many’. We couldn’t stand seeing them go to waste, hence We got started on making our own cider.
Our Original Press
Here is a picture of the original press we built using some plans off the internet. it worked really well, although a little slow and we had to replace the top cross-bar with a piece of hardwood as the one you see here cracked under the pressure.
Preparing The Apples
We wash, clean and prepare all the apples by hand to make sure we have the best quality fruit in the cider. This really helps prevent problems later on.
Today we still wash, clean and sort by hand but not quite as individually as in the early days, shown here.
Crushing
For the first year we used a piece of prepared 4″x4″ to crush the apples before pressing. A bit laborious but it worked. The second year we managed to borrow a mill from a friend.
In 2014 we purchased a commercial mill that can process up to 1000Kg an hour! This is a major help when you have many tonnes to process.
Pressing
Finally pressing the apple pulp ready for fermentation. This is the really exciting stage. Getting all the family involved is part of it – as long as they don’t drink too much of the gorgeous apple juice!
We use hydro-press now which is much more efficient and reliable but still produces an amazing juice, just using the pressure of water.
A Community Activity
Apple picking and cider making has long been a community activity. Although we don’t live on a farm a lot of people still get involved in providing, picking, pressing and of course drinking the end product.
