Picking Apples From A Tall Tree & Cider Pressing Announcement

We're in the midst of bedding down the garden for winter. Stakes are laying all over the place and Lil has comandeered these 8 foot bamboo poles for playing pole vault, riding them like a witch's broomstick, and fighting imaginary monsters. It's a cheap toy, yet another version of the 'box and a stick', always favorite playthings.

On Sunday, Alex and I were surveying the yard and noticed that some apples on our mature, very tall apple tree were ripe. The ones that fell to the ground on their own were getting eaten by deer or dogs or raccoons, all of whom are less worthy of organic apples than us. We were pondering whether to rent or buy a pole-mounted apple picker when Lil ran towards the garage. She returned with a bamboo pole and started whacking at the apples. The ripe ones fell to the ground where we could pick them up.

Brilliant, my new eight-year-old!

Alex grabbed a pole too and I found a Trug. Twenty minutes of fun hitting and collecting later and we had a bushel of apples. Obviously many bruised when they hit the ground but for making cider, that doesn't matter.

We would love to let you hit an apple with a bamboo pole and see cider pressing in action. We're holding a Cider Pressing Open House at 1224 E Cooke Rd Columbus OH 43224 on Saturday October 26 from 2-5 pm. See you there!

Cider Syrup Bacon

Italy has prosciutto, German has sausages and Spain has serrano. It seems to me that America's go-to cured meat is bacon.

Long ubiquitous at breakfasts, bacon has recently enjoyed resurgence to cult status, flavoring everything from beer to cupcakes.

With a populace growing in concern about high fructose corn syrup and additives, making bacon has also become the de rigueur for the adventurous home cook. We hopped on the bacon makin' wagon over two years ago and haven't bought a pack of the store bought stuff since.

The process is simple: Rub fresh pork belly (our favorite local source is Blues Creek Meats) with a curing mix of sugar, salt, and pink salt. Under refrigeration, allow the pork to absorb the salt and leach some liquid for 4-7 days. Rinse off the salt, pat dry, and smoke or oven roast. Slice, cook, and viola! You just made the best bacon you've ever tasted.

The joy of home charcuterie rarely stops with the first batch of bacon, however. A curious cook wonders how this or that will affect the flavor and begins experimenting.

This drive to excite our mouths with interesting new flavors led to the discovery of cider syrup bacon. Just as one might make maple flavored bacon by adding maple syrup to the cure described above, we tried adding 1/2 cup of Charlie's Apple Cider Syrup to a five pound batch of bacon last year. It imbibed the pork belly with tangy zest from the apples and the slightest hint of cinnamon.

When we pressed cider and made our own syrup this fall, we made another batch, knowing the ingredients even more intimately. Perfect for winter when we don't always want to fire up the grill, cider syrup bacon is best oven roasted, lest the delicate syrup flavors be overwhelmed by smoking. This charcuterie experiment was a keeper.

If you want to jump into the world of home cured bacon and other tasty meats, we recommend Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn's book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. You can also follow the Charcutepalooza blog project in which we are participating. If you learn best in person, join us for our Charcuterie class at Franklin Park Conservatory on March 15 from 6:30 - 8 pm.

Added to Simple Lives Thursday 30th edition.

Cider Pressing

Our cider press has seen lots of action since we acquired it a month ago. Here is what it produced so far:

October 26 - 1 liter pear cider

November 6 - 1.5 gallons winesap cider, 1 gallon gold rush cider + lots of tastes consumed at our Cider Pressing Party

November 21 - 5.75 gallons winesap cider, 1/2 gallon pomegranate cider

We still have seven bags of winesap apples, some gold rush apples if we aren't able to keep them fresh, and several odds and ends amounts from friends left to press.

Some of the juice, including the four gallons I'm hugging at left, is bubbling away in fermentation vessels to make hard apple cider. The pear cider matched with sierra nevada yeast produced a lovely sweet perry that we shared with family this weekend.

Some people get excited about the stock market or political news or the latest car. We are hot for home pressed cider and the resulting fermented products.

Thanksgivings

I am thankful for so many people who love me. I am thankful for so many people to love.

This will be my mantra for the next week.

Thanksgiving starts Saturday for us with a daytime meal with Alex's parents, brother, and brother's fiancee and family.  We are bringing cranberry bread, roasted brussel sprouts with almonds, and buffie wellies, Alex's buffalo wellington creation (recipe coming soon).

I am thankful for so many people who love me. I am thankful for so many people to love.

Thursday noontime will find us at my great aunt's house for the lovingly named the 'short lady lunch', after my grandfather's nine vertically challenged sisters.  This gathering will have fifty or more people sharing a meal on my great aunt's pig farm.  I will proudly bring our home-pressed cider, replacing the cider that used to be provided by my apple farmer uncle Gene who died a few years ago.

I am thankful for so many people who love me. I am thankful for so many people to love.

On Thursday evening we will travel to Napoleon to eat a soup dinner with my mother's family.  We will bring a soup Lil likes and a loaf of homemade bread.  We'll stay the night with my aunt, two of my sisters, parents, cousins, and several dogs.

I am thankful for so many people who love me. I am thankful for so many people to love.

Finally, on Sunday evening, my sisters, Alex, Lil and I will gather at my parents house for a final family meal.

We are not cooking the turkey for any of these thanksgivings but those of you who are cooking might be interested in turkey the hound way.

I am thankful for so many people who love me.

I am thankful for so many people to love.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

Cider Press!

Meet the newest tool in the hand-powered arsenal at Hounds in the Kitchen:

A cider press!

Charlie of Windy Hill Apple Farm had this press on display with a for-sale sign the last time we visited.  I immediately recognized it as a well maintained machine for a good price.

We debated for a few days about whether we need a press when: 1) we have no apple tress, 2) even if we moved to a farm tomorrow it would be years before we would have producing apple trees and 3) how exactly do you use a cider press?

The debate ended when casual mentions of the press for sale were greeted with friends and family strongly encouraging us to buy it and offering up apples ready for cider-making this season.

Today the cider press is ours.  We immediately tested it with some very squishy pears, yielding a quart of juice.  Not enjoying the taste of the overripe fruit, we poured it into a jug with a fermentation lock to make some pear hooch.  We are determined to master the making of hard cider, as any good pioneer would be.

Soon, bags of apples will be turned into gallons of cider by the power of the screw and our very own hands.  We may host a cider-making day once we figure out what we're doing.  We will definitely accept sharing or renting arrangements for those of you with excess fruit.

"Give me yesterday's Bread, this Day's Flesh, and last Year's Cyder." Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) 'Poor Richard's Almanac'

Added to Hearth and Soul blog hop.