I watch the grocery store flyers in the Fall for apple prices so I can make cider. This year, Safeway had Envy and Gala apples for $1.50 a pound in mid September. So I asked Jess to buy 5 pounds of each and stuck them in the freezer. Finally, at the end of the October, Nob Hill had Granny Smith apples for $1.50 a pound and I bought 10 pounds. I rotated the earlier apples to the fridge to begin thawing and froze the Granny Smith for a couple of days before moving them to the fridge to thaw as well. Then Sunday was Cider Day!
Sadly, I woke up sick on Saturday and had to power through Cider Day because the apples needed to be turned into cider before they deteriorated too far after having been frozen. So I didn’t get to enjoy it so much as I had to just get it done so as to not waste all the apples. The weather was good though. Crisp, sunny Autumn day.
I got the cider bench set up and Corinne helped me grind the apples. Didn’t take much for the Envy and Gala–they were barely being held together by their skins.
Approximately 20 pounds of apples turned into about 23 cups of cider at a cost of about ~$1.30 per cup. The flavor is pretty good with a nice rich cider color.
