Today I pressed cider from apples that were drops. Last week I pressed apple cider from apples that I picked. The apple cider that I pressed today I won't sell, it is just for us, the apple cider I pressed last week was all sold.....But the cider today tasted ever so much better than the apple cider from picked apples. WHO would have guessed that? not me. I was sure the apples that were picked would make a nicer product, but it tasted like apple juice for the first week ( that was how long it took me to sell most of it) Todays cider was excellent and tasted like cider. I spent an hour (maybe more) washing and cleaning the apples before I tossed them in the grinder box on the press and spent a couple hours getting it finished. Most of todays cider I will turn into vinegar, which was the reason for doing the cider from drops in the first place. I hate to see the apple go to waste and I won't sell the drops. Too much to worry about from e-coli if there is the slightest chance of it occurring.
What variety are your apples ? I have an Indian peach that only has fruit about the size of a golf ball and not too great if picked from the tree, but when they hit the ground they are out of this world good. Wild plums are the same. They don`t even make good jelly until they sit on the ground or in a bowl a day or two. I figured it might be because most of the fruit now is a hybrid of some sort and these are old types. Either that or the sugars are just more concentrated after they are separate from the tree a while.
Wow! What a story today. You do so well with your apples. Like Mart, I am interested to know what apple sorts you are using.
I used Jonagold, Jonathan and a newer variety called Freedom. The Freedom were drops that sat in my basement for about two weeks, maybe longer. I checked the tree on a Sat. and again on the next Thursday and 5 bu. had dropped on the ground :-x. So I used them to make applesauce last week or the week before and the cider yesterday.
Carolyn, I see you call them Drops. I always heard Windfalls. Around the corner from our trailer park, about a half mile away, there are about 12 or more apple trees growing alongside the road, untended, except by the worms. I stopped and picked enough to eat and a few cooked and frozen. Some I used to make apple cobbler. Yummy and free. Some had to have bad spots cut away, but if the worms like them, they must be safe to eat. Another day, I stopped by the same road and gathered walnuts. Squrrels took a few that I left within reach, but I have a few for myself.
carolyn keiper, You go girlfriend. I have my apple press but it hasn't been used yet, at least by me. It's over 100 years old so I am sure someone has used it. LOL
I call them drops because they fall without being swayed by the wind. Most likely windfall is the term most people use, but sometimes as I am out in the garden you can hear the first apples (usually the Mc Intosh) falling as we are picking raspberries early in the morning. Ask at the office, if there is one, and maybe they would give you as many as you want to pick up. Just be very aware of any animal feces in the area. I won't sell drops due to the worry of e-coli being transmitted by deer. If you see any evidence of feces avoid picking them up. Barb, Our press is my FIL's Garden Way press he built from kit back in the '70's . It works, but it isn't terribly efficient in pressing all the juice out, but it gets the job mostly done. I would like to build a whiz-bang one, but that is another project and for my more mechanically inclined son, not me.
Carolyn, the trees don't actually belong to anyone. There is a trailer park there, but the trees are nearer the road. I think they are leftover from the old farm which once graced the area. Being very near the road also keeps animals away from them it seems. I saw no evidence of feces and I trampled quite a lot of grass and fallen apples. Thanks for the advice.
