Harvesting apples at the end of Summer and into the Autumn will bring your rich returns for the coming cold months. Here are ways to fully take advantage of this abundance.
Of course it’s nice have fresh apples to eat raw when they are in season. But that only lasts for a time. This is a valuable perennial crop that gives a rich abundance. If you have a good source, you can have apples coming out of your ears and you’re still not able to use them all. That is when it is time to start exploring some options to make this harvest last you a good long time.
Finding a Source of Apples
Now wouldn’t it be sweet if we all could be harvesting apples from our own orchard? But the fact is that we can’t. So we look elsewhere for a source of apples. Sure, you could go to buy apples at an orchard. But depending on how many apples you actually want, you might end up paying quite a bit. There is a more creative and more free option.
Pasture Apples
Here in the Midwest, it is quite common that there are old, gnarly apple trees and old orchards gone feral in cow pastures. Who knows what variety any of these feral trees produce–they can range in size, shape and sweetness-to-tartness ratio. But chances are the farmer is not using them beyond letting the cows fatten up on them.
The first year we had our cider press, I packed the family in the van and we drove around the country roads, looking for potential pasture apples. We knocked on the door of a farmhouse and asked the decent elderly folk if they wouldn’t mind if we picked a few sacks of their apples–and of course, they were happy to oblige. This might be out of many folk’s comforts zone to do–but perhaps it could do you you good. Myself, my desire for apples every autumn gives me a very extroverted confidence. I must say, that having a lovely wife and cheerful children in tow can really soften up folks interactions with me– just something to note for all you gents.
The Beauty of Ugly Apples
Of course you can pay good money to go pick your spotless honey-crisp whatnots. Pasture apples, on the other hand, may be an eye-sore to look at, but you don’t eat an apple by looking at it! Free ugly apples can taste just as good as spotless, orchard ones.
For the abundance that apple trees will give you, they can provide many months of sustenance for the family. Here are my favorite options:
Apple Sauce
You can either hot water bath or pressure can them. Or, if you have the space and are limited in time, you can freeze the apple sauce in freezer bags.
Freezer Apples
Fill up gallon freezer bags of sliced apples. These can readily be pulled out throughout the year for pies, crisps or apple pancakes. Having a nifty peeler/corer/slicer makes the children even want to help.
Apple Chips
Instead of freezing the slices, you can put them in a food dehydrator. After they are leathery, store them in dry, airtight containers and they will be shelf-stable for the months to come. Be sure to make LOTS of chips. You’ll be surprised how children can veritably inhale them.
Apple Cider
Consider acquiring a cider press, because the returns are worth it. As a teenager, my folks recommissioned my grandfather’s old cider press. It quickly became a firm and favorite family tradition. The resulting juice can be canned fresh in mason jars and stored in the pantry for use all year.
Or you can ferment it for one of the easiest alcoholic beverages. I had my first taste of hard cider whilst working on a farm in the Black Forest where it is called Must. It served as your mid-day meal drink. To make a simple Must, you can put the fresh, unpasteurised apple juice in a jug or carboy with an airlock. The wild yeast that is present on the apples will set to work fermenting it and you will have a nice dry cider in about a month. Then either drink or bottle it.
Because wild yeast can be a bit unpredictable in affecting the taste, you can opt to heat up the juice to pasteurize it, cool it and pitch either in a wine or brewer’s yeast.
The great thing about putting apples to cider is that you can use all the bruised and damaged apples. After you press the crushed apples for its juice, give them to your chickens, pigs or cows to feast on. See? No waste!
When I moved away from my home region and started my own family, I missed having a cider press and that beloved Autumn tradition. Because money is always tight, I managed to build my own cider press out of odds and ends. I started out with using a giant lever for the press.
The children love helping with that process…
Eventually, I used an old car jack to get more force. This is indeed a rustic contraption, but we are content. It has served us for 4+ years of harvesting apples!
Get a few gallons in the fermenter at the beginning of September, and you should be able to have a batch of Must ready to help you celebrate Michaelmas at the end of the month! Harvesting apples is a great way to start rounding the year out! ~Nathanael
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