Cider Pressing has Begun

Friday, September 24th, 2010

Fall harvest season has officially arrived, because we have started to press cider!!!! I look forward to this all season, even though we usually keep a small supply of cider frozen for the winter and spring. There is nothing like a glass of fresh cider cold off the press. It is by far the best juice you can get and it is all natural. Our cider is 100% fresh squeezed fruit, with no additives or preservatives.  The apples we use for cider are all freshly picked apples that have bruises or marks on them, and can not be sold for retail. We DO NOT use grounders. Why you ask? Grounders can not be used for cider because of the risk of contamination.

The cider making process:

First a bin of apples is loaded onto the hydraulic bin dumper. We then slowly raise and tilt the bin so the apples roll out into the trough, where they are washed by many spinning scrub brushes, the apples move along the trough and move down to a conveyer belt and then are dropped into a big chopper. From the chopper the apple mash falls into a large hopper and pumped into our cider press, which resembles a very large accordion. In the press the apple mash is squeezed together and the juice drains out the bottom, where it is collected and pumped into big vats.

The leftover mash which  is now completely dry is fed to the cows, who love this treat. This same process is done to squeeze the other fruits for their juice.  The cider is put into the cooler to sit over night, to allow particles to settle at the bottom. The following day is bottling day.

Before bottling we run all the cider through a UV pasteurizer. We pasteurize our cider according to the recommendation from Food Safety-Health Canada. Because unpasteurized juice products can be contaminated with harmful bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli, viruses, and parasites. By UV pasteurizing, we don’t change the flavor or healthy benefits, it just kills and harmful organisms that could make people sick. After the cider is pasteurized we then bottle it, label it and bring it to market for you to enjoy. The last step is enjoying the cider!!! The cider can be enjoyed warm or cold and is great severed as a punch (your choice to spike it). Since we do not add any preservatives, our cider must be kept refrigerated. The cider can also be frozen, so you can enjoy fresh cider year round.

We make several different types of cider, where we mix in juice from our own fruit (except Wild Blueberry). You can find our cider at markets or in the big fridge at the home market. Come out and give our cider a try. You will not be disappointed.

We make:

Apple Cider

Raspberry Apple Cider

Strawberry Apple Cider

Wild Blueberry Apple Cider (using Wild Blueberries)