[TheForge] Re: test

[Andrew Vida]

Mike Spencer wrote:
>> dead?
> 
> Not altogether, Dan. But blame it on the apples.  I was hoping to have
> a whole bunch of Big Air Hammer bragging to post by now but I got
> side-tracked.
> 
> This was a spectacular year for apples.  Trees that usually bear were
> nearly falling over. Trees we regarded as little more than
> blossom-time ornaments that usually bear a few wormy little apples
> were loaded with huge apples rivaling those in the supermarket.  And
> they're all "heritage" varieties, healthier and more flavorful than
> most modern, store-boughten varieties.

	Same here in WV.  I picked an apple that weighed almost 1.5# off the 
tree a few hours ago.  I've been making applesauce, cider, and butter 
for about a week.  I still have hundred of apples on this one tree by 
the house.  The rest we picked bare.  Good eatin', too.
> 
> I've had a cast iron beam and square-thread screw from a cider press
> for years.  This was clearly the year to get a Round Tuit so I built a
> cider press.  Got about 2 oz. of cider from a bushel of hand-cut
> apples so I had to build a pulper.  Plywood, threaded rod, old pipe,
> scrap metal, ball bearings somebody brought me from an ice breaker
> engine room, old washing machine parts and JB Weld.  Works great!
> About a gallon of cider to the bushel.  The least-promising-looking
> tree made 4 gallons of the best cider.  Up to about 10 gallons now and
> I have two bushels more to press.  Yeee-haw!

	I need to find a press myself.  You don't want to know how we've been 
doing it. :(