DrinksThe Simple Process Of Making Apple Juice
When the summer comes to an end and the leaves just barely begin to turn colors, another natural phenomenon begins to happen with the trees in my parentð€™s yard. They begin to drop fruit to the ground. Those trees are filled with apples, and now those apples are beginning to fall from the yard which only means one thing, time for the traditional making of apple juice.
At the point when enough apples have fallen from the trees is when we get out equipment for making apple juice. We gather up all the buckets we can find which will be used to collect all of the apples that have fallen from the trees to the ground. When a bucket is full, it is brought over to the apple pressing area, and then the work to fill another bucket begins.
While the apples are being collected, there is another process that is taking place and that is the pressing of the apples. The apple press that we use is actually an antique that was passed down to us by our grandmother. Yes itð€™s old, but it still does the exact job that it is supposed to do which is press the apples so the juice can be collected. Beneath the press is another bucket which is used to collect the juice as it falls from the press.
The apple press is shaped like a bucket and has a threaded shaft going down through the middle to the bottom where it is attached with a flange that allows it to spin through. At the top is a crank and on the shaft is a wood block shaped like the opening of the bucket. When the crank is turned, the wood block spirals downward on the shaft, pressing whatever fruit is in the bucket. The juice then runs out of a number of holes in the bottom of the bucket and passes through a number of screens on the way to the bucket below.
Thatð€™s really all there is to it, so you see itð€™s a pretty simple process. The trick is to keep the process flowing so that you can make a lot of juice in a reasonable amount of time. When youð€™re finished, youð€™ll have a lot of fresh, great tasting apple juice to enjoy.