Apple Cider?

We took a good look at the boxes filled with this year’s apple harvest and said, “These look like cider apples.”

Mostly small, misshapen, and spotty.

Too many to eat fresh. Wrong variety to can or freeze.

Yep. These were cider apples.

But we no longer have access to a cider press. It was sold with the rest of the Amish store when the Mast sisters left and we don’t know who bought it.

Bummer.

One second thought – maybe not a bummer. After all – that cider press was a lot of hard physical labor to use.

And I do have a juicer.

An ACME juicer no less – (Wile E Coyote fans are chuckling right now)– bought at a thrift store.

But this leads to a dilemma.

If it is made on a juicer is the finished product juice? Or is it cider since it’s made using the same principles as the cider press?

And does it really matter? Because that juicer puts out some pretty tasty apple stuff!

Seriously yummy.

Nope. Life’s too short to quibble over labels.

We’ll just call it delicious and enjoy all we can drink fresh. The rest we’ll freeze in plastic containers for winter.

Oh – and that Christmas mug in the picture? I know it’s only the first of November.

But hey – life’s too short to quibble!

Apple Picking & Changing Seasons

Sunday afternoon was one of those perfect fall days – with the sun shining and warm temperatures.

And we spent it in apple trees.

Well – actually one apple tree mostly – but it had 2 kinds of apples growing in it.

No – I’m not kidding. It is one tree with both the tart Jonathon and the sweet Yellow Delicious apples growing together, side by side.

It’s one of those apple trees from the seed catalogs that’s supposed to grow four different kinds in apples in one tree – except that only 2 of the grafts survived.

An older couple from church planted it several years ago and have blessing people -including us – with apples ever since.

But this year was a little bittersweet.

After we spent several hours picking the bumper crop, filling up every container we brought with us, removing the back seat of the van just to get the apples in, and still leaving half of the apples hanging in the tree – we drove in to see their “new” house in town.

Sometime in the next few months, they’ll pack up and leave the farm.

It’s the end of era.

On one hand – I’m so happy and excited for them! They were almost like newlyweds as they showed us around the new house and served us ice cream cones.

But on the other hand – the move will be hard. While they are leaving behind the work and upkeep of the farm, they’re also leaving their home of over 50 years, their livelihood, their lifestyle.

It’s a needed change, but not an easy one.

Bittersweet.

Kinda like a tree that grows both tart and sweet apples side by side.

Apple Song

The apples are seasoned and ripe and sound

Gently they fall on the yellow ground

The apples are stored in the dusty bin

Where hardly a glimmer of light creeps in

In the firelit winter nights, they’ll be

The clear sweet taste of a summer’s tree!

~Frances Frost