Quick post to show some of the fall happenings here at the farm.

First, the pear trees are coming along nicely – they started dropping fruit in mid-August.  The Anjou pears were delicious, but didn’t give much juice for cider.  The smaller pears in the photos are some variety of Forelle or Comice – small and sweet (I’m leaning toward Forelle, but since we didn’t plant the trees it’s not easy to tell).  We still have the Bosc and  and what I think is another variety of Anjou but I’m not sure.

Anyway, I pressed a few gallons using the tiny hobby press I bought last year.

 

So after that round of pressing, I decided to up my game and build a larger press.  I started with a 20 ton shop press from Harbor Freight.  Then I created a series of boards and cloth wraps to do the actual pressing.  I still had to do the grinding/scratting with the smaller old system – I’m going to either create something much larger this winter in the shop or I may simply purchase the larger scratter. Obviously I will eventually need a large scale machine but for the next couple of years I’m just practicing my recipes and craft so we’ll see.

Although the grinding phase was still slow, the pressing with the new system was incredibly fast.  I got a gallon of cider on the first round – once the grinding was done, maybe ten minutes.  Significant increase.

 

And because I don’t have an Instagram account which is really where I think you are supposed to put food pictures, here’s my Labor Day meal, cooked over the open fire.

Fall is here!  Hunting, football and hunting!