[vermont] Cider Press

This past Saturday I was invited by my neighbor to a cider press at a local farm. Everyone pools their apples together and you go home with jugs of fresh pressed cider.

First, apples are dumped into a big tub of water to be washed:

Then, using plastic milk crates, scoop out the apples and slowly pour them down a chute where they will be smashed and layered between brown cloths.

The guy below rings a bell to tell you to stop pouring apples while he closes off one layer and preps the next cloth. Then rings the bell to tell you to start pouring again. Then he repeatedly rings the bell to tell you to stop pouring apples all together, it's time to press.

Down at the hydraulic press, the juice is squeezed from the apples.

Any pulp is filtered with the brown cloths but the juice is filtered again, through a finer cloth, before bottling.

The leftover pulp after being pressed (good food for pigs if to have them):

And then you start all over again- wash apples, pour them down the chute, press, bottle. Wash pour press bottle. 

At home, enjoy the fruit (juice) of your labor: