Cider Day 2018!

It was great to visit at your school last week! I hope you enjoyed the cider. It's a lot of work to make cider but it's delicious so we do it every year.

We work hard picking apples a few days before we come to school.

Dear Emery,
Yes, we have one apple tree. It's a small tree and doesn't grow apples yet. We have friends and neighbors who have apple trees and they are so generous that they share their apples with us so we can bring them to your school!


Have you ever picked apples from a tree?

Everyone in our family helps pick apples! 

We filled a lot of buckets with apples!

We pack the truck the night before we head to school.
It's faster if we are all loading than if I have to load it all myself.

Your custodian, Mr. Stewart, and some 6th graders helped us unload the truck and get everything set up.

Mr. Stewart helped us grind the apples to make cider.
So did the custodian.
He used to have Cider Day in his home town when he was growing up!

After we grind the apples up,
we put them in the press and squeeze the cider out of them.

I was wrong in the video. We use a hydraulic bottle jack. 

We made enough cider for everyone to have a taste!

I hope you enjoyed our visit!

The day after we visit your school we always invite the neighbors over to make apples from their cider. They have a great time, even though no one is smiling in the photo.
They get to taste cider, just like you do!
They get to see all the animals, and they get to play on the playground.
It's a great day!

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Look how big the ducklings are getting!

The chicks are growing, too!

Dot is growing beautiful speckled feathers. 

It's been a great week helping other people with cider and showing them around the farm. I hope you've done some nice things for other people, too!