Apple Cider Day

Welcome back!

It was so much fun to visit you last week. Thanks for inviting me to share Johnny Appleseed Day with you.

First I have a few funny pictures from the farm.

Whenever we try to get a picture of Echo she sticks her nose in the camera!
It looks like she has a big nose. Matt took this photo and we thought it was so funny!
If you were going to write a story about this picture, how would your story start?
What would happen in your story?

Do you have a brother or sister who always gets themselves stuck or in trouble?
This is River.
She manages to get herself stuck in gates inside the barn....

and outside the barn.
She is a sweet, fun, friendly goat.
But she sure knows how to get herself into trouble!

*     *     *     *     *     *

Last week my family loaded up the apple cider press, the grinder, and all the apples
so we could come visit you and show you how we make apple cider.

After getting all set up we let each child put an apple in the grinder and turn the handle.
Sometimes it was easy to turn the handle, and sometimes it was really hard!

Do you see the rocks on the table that holds the grinder? That's because one of the boards started coming loose so Matt had a great idea to use two rocks to hold the board in place. It worked!

The next day we made the rest of the apples into cider. This is what it looks like when the grinder is going.

When we have enough apples ground we put them in the press.
Sorry, we don't have any pictures of what it looks like pressing the apples.

After the apples are pressed, and the cider comes through the hose, we get to taste it!

I only have a few pictures of you tasting because Mrs. Deitz was only able to stay for a little while to take pictures. Maybe next year we'll have a parent volunteer come to help take pictures of all of you enjoying the delicious, fresh cider!

We pressed about 6 gallons while we were with you on Friday.

After you left it took us about 2 hours to clean up, pack up the equipment, and head for home. I got home about 5:30 that afternoon. That's a long day!

On Saturday we pressed all the rest of the apples into cider. We pressed 18 gallons of cider that day. We are very grateful that the neighbors shared so many apples with us. And we are very, very glad that so many of you brought apples, too. If we put different kinds of apples into the cider, the cider tastes so much better.

I think that is just like people. The more different kinds of people that work together, the better the group becomes.

What happens to all the peels and chunks that are left over from making cider?

We bring them home and share some of them with the animals. The cows, goats, and chickens all love the leftovers. We put the rest in the mulch pile so it will turn into good dirt for the garden. We don't throw the peels and leftovers away, they all go to good use!

Thank you for letting me come and show you how we make cider. I hope you liked it.

Have a great week!