Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Backyard Cider Making

This is our apple grinder not to be confushed with a Monkey grinder selling peanuts.

Husband believes that this is actually a grape crusher. I know that it was a good deal at the antique shop where we bought my coal laundry stove that I can on. The scent of fresh apples.
Point is that it works fairly well provided you have ready & willing manual power.
The apples this year are a mix of gala, rome, crispin, mac ... really anything we could get our hands on.

Ah fresh off the press.
Pity Mom won't let anyone but Husband drink it truely fresh. The rest of the family has to wait for pasturization. After that the majority is canned for later use ... like after Christmas caroling.
Making cider was a great way to spend quality time with both my husband and children on one of the last crisp autaum days on our homestead.
Here's a cute link on cider & perry making. Perry is Pear cider made some last fall for DH Hunting buddy.

City Thing


It's a city thing.
It's pull one over on the man, beat 'um at their own game, no code man gonna keep me from my fresh eggs thang.
It's a one too many episodes of TOH, gonna own me a painted lady - no cookie cutter split ranch suburban 30 year mortgage for me, thing.
It's a sit a while on your front porch and smile a hello to strollers ... hand out homemade popsickles to all the neighboorhood children sorta thing.
Walk to a live free concert, enjoy an evening little league game, or simply go visit on your neighbor's porch thing.
For the blessed few of us it's a less than 15 minute work commute thing.
It's a don't tell me I can't grow this in a cardboard box ... in this zone ... with this dirt ... thing.
A great radio interview about a Massachusetts homesteading family http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5427293