Harvest Home

The ‘Apple People’, aka Terroir North, have splendid ideas on using apples:

Inevitably in most years we end up with rather a lot of fruit and that means swinging into gathering, storing and using modes. Generally the fruit harvest breaks down into five end uses; pies and cakes, stewing and freezing, juice, family and friends and birds. The first is obvious but uses relatively little fruit, the second uses a bit more fruit but is limited to space in the freezers,  juicing uses large numbers of apples of which more anon, distribution to family and friends is self explanatory and many apples end up as bird food for distribution throughout the winter. Redwings, fieldfares and blackbirds pile in through the autumn and winter months to peck happily at the remnants of the harvest. And when the windfalls and reject apples finally disappear there is a large bin containing their rations for later in the season when several apples will be put out each day.

Despite the many end uses (and users) the largest part of the crop goes into making juice. Not the anaemic looking and often tasteless stuff found in supermarkets but a full bodied, rich and seriously strong juice. Juicing is a brilliant way of utilising lots of the smaller, mis-shapen and slightly damaged apples. It’s a simple process, though but can be a tad time consuming.

What you need is a fruit chopper, a sharp knife, several buckets, a large pan, a rolling pin with one handle missing (be patient and the purpose of this little oddity will become clear), a crusher, a moderate amount of strength, a sieve and plenty of (mainly plastic) bottles. Oh and space in a freezer is pretty essential too. Thus suitably armed here is what you do to get that brilliant fresh apple juice that will ensure you never buy the shop stuff again!

Once gathered it’s wise to get on with the juicing as soon as possible. Apples bruise easily and the decay spreads rapidly. We would recommend giving the apples a good wash to remove things like mud, cobwebs, bits of grass and any invertebrates that might still want to claim the fruit as their home.

Carry said apples to the chopper, which, as you can see from the photo (below left) is basically a hopper box with chunky teeth at the base and a big wheel which rotates and chops the loaded apples into a pulpy pile. Here’s the slow bit. Each apple needs to be cut into two or three chunks and any rotten or bruised bits cut out and thrown away (below right, bruised bits waiting to become bird food). That way they will happily go through the chopper whereas whole apples will not (they just bounce about annoyingly). That’s where the sharp knife comes in.

Gather the pulp in a bucket until more or less filled. Grab the single handled rolling pin and boldly and unhesitatingly pulverise the pulp in the bucket. This may seem a bit drastic but what it actually achieves is a further breakdown of the pulp and a greater release of the juice. At last we come to the actual crushing process. We use a relatively small crusher which is ideal for home use. Larger ones are available and one can get electric choppers. But this suits us.

The pulverised mush is dropped into the crusher and an assortment of wooden bits are assembled on top and a solid iron block is wound down the central spindle. The more this bears down on the fruit the greater the flow of juice out through the sides of the closely spaced oak slats and the greater the satisfying sound of apple juice pouring into your pan placed below. As the pulp compacts the pressure required to extract the maximum juice increases until  such time as you concede defeat and stop for a breather (hence the moderate strength in the list of requirements!).

By now you should have a pan full of lovely apple juice and all that remains (and this really is the most satisfying and rewarding bit) is to sieve the juice to remove any bits of pulp that might have fallen in, and decant into bottles. For immediate use, glass bottles filled to the top are fine. In the fridge they will stay fresh for a few days. To freeze, decant into plastic bottles to about two thirds full (allow for expansion of course) and pop in the freezer. They will keep for ages that way and what a delight to bring out a bottle or two at Christmas, or whenever else you feel like it. Once defrosted, we find they keep chilled for at least two weeks.

 One question we get asked frequently is ‘do you make cider?’ Well, we love cider very much and yes we did try, but despite our best endeavours and a promising start, it eventually went horribly wrong and a lot of effort and apple juice ended up down the drain. We would never discourage would-be cider makers but would caution that great care and not a little skill is needed. Maybe it’s not quite as easy as the books suggest.

One other thing about the fruit trees is the beauty of the blossom in spring. Each variety and fruit type flowers at a slightly different time. We so much look forward to blossom time which spans several weeks in the spring and then, of course to autumn to harvest and enjoying all the tasty produce which derives from the plums, damsons, pears and, most of all, the apples in all their shapes, sizes and colours. And to conclude with a couple of lines from Keats again:

‘To bend with apples the moss’d cottage trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;’

 All images © T Thompson