13th Annual Cider Press

We kicked off the first day of Fall with our annual cider press with friends. Even though our kids have grown up they still come together to press cider. It makes my momma's heart happy.

That's about half of the pulp we ended up with.

This year we bought a bin (858 pounds) of apples from Yakima. They are a new variety from New Zealand called "Smitten."

That bin barely fit in the back of our truck!

We had some last night with my grandma's recipe for caramel apple dip. They are a hybrid of galas and honeycrisps and are some of the best eating apples I've ever had!

Unfortunately, they didn't make great cider. They were a bit too sweet and didn't yield much. We had over 850 pounds and only got 33 gallons of cider. On the bright side, we were done in well less than 2 hours which meant I was able to get done canning my 8 gallons before bedtime... :)

Now it looks, and smells, like Fall...