Cider Time: The Farm Report 10-25-2019

Cider Time

The Farm Report 10-25-2019

It is late October, and the apples are as sweet as they will ever be. Time to get out the little cider press and make some cider!

This little press came to me from a contact at NAFEX - North American Fruit Explorers. That is a specialty interest group I belong to. This press was abandoned behind a shed that was destined to be demolished by a bull dozer. It had trees growing up through the flywheel, and the wood was all but gone. The press screw was frozen in place with rust. My Dad and I chopped it out of the 'jungle' that had grown up around it, and hauled the remains home to the shop. We rebuilt the wood with white oak using what was left as pattern plans. The pomace tubs are original, the bottom boards are new. It has not been approved by OSHA.

Step One: Get out the ranger and go pick apples.

The red ones are Macs, Sops of Wine and Chieftains. There are a couple of 'Susie's Apples' in there too. Susie was a friend of my wife, Joyce's. Her son, Preston, was interested in learning how to graft fruit trees at the time. Susie said she didn't know what kind of apple it was, but it was a good one! It had been on her parent's farm and she had grown up with it. She was right; it is, indeed, a 'good one.' Fortunately, we got the grafts to 'take' and now we have a wonderful tree. Sadly, both Susie and Joyce are no longer with us, but we have Susie's Apple in Joyce's Windmill Orchard to remind us of both of them.

I planted Joyce's Orchard with the idea of recreating a turn-of-the-century (20th) farm homestead orchard. I have selected apple varieties accordingly, although not exclusively. These are Porter, or also known as Yellow Pearmains. They are insipid as a desert apple. They do add a lot of sweetness to the mix though.

This apple is Kidd's Orange Red Pippin. It is super - super! - tart. It makes the cider 'zippy.'

Don't 'nerd out' on me. I do like to be casual, but I also like to know what's going on. Thanks to modern technology and cheap imports, I can afford a refractometer to measure the sugar in my fruit juices. The ones we used in my chem classes way back when cost over a hundred dollars. This one cost me $17 bucks. It is plastic, but it is fine for me - and guess what. It gives you surprises. Those tart Kidd's were the sweetest by far. The tongue is sometimes fooled by the acids in fruit. Delicious with or without a meter....

Annie likes here apples, too. Which does she prefer? Of course the answer is simple: the one I have at the moment.

Out in the garden it is fall cleanup time. This is the remains of the cucumber row. Annie thought it was her job to pick up every spent cuke and drag it off to somewhere else - and bury it! It kept her busy all afternoon. Next year, we'll have cukes growing in strange places, I think.

It seems like I can't write a farm report without some bad news. This one is no exception. See those two long rows of potatoes? There is also another one you can't see. It is half as long. 'Spuds for all,' you say.

Nope. This is it. I don't think I even got my starter back. I usually expect between 200 and 300 pounds of potatoes from those rows. This year, I got just about 35 pounds. What went wrong? Japanese Beetles set in on the plants at exactly the wrong time. Next year! Next year I will be much more proactive with the Japanese Beetle Treatments. 

Over in the greenhouse, the Hydroponic Strawberry Patch system in installed and in operation. I do have a few strawberry plants in it, but the rest are cold weather salad greens. I thought it would be good to try a little shake-down on something like spinach first. The bucket on the end holds the water and fertilizer. There is a little pump in it that circulates the solution.

The pipes are connected in pairs so that the solution goes down one length then spills into the next lower one, and around and around until the water gets back to the bucket for another round. And around and around.

As an old guy with a bum back, I'm always looking for ways to get jobs done without heavy lifting. I'm adding an official Harbor Freight pickup crane to the toolbar armory for the tractor and splitter. There is a cable winch that goes on this gizmo, and a set of log tongs on the end of that. I'll show you more later. But it is time to go to the timber logging! We've had a hard freeze and the bugs and weeds are gone. Time to start getting serious about cutting and hauling wood.

The best part is that it all folds up for easy carrying and storage. It is mounted on a 2-inch receiver hitch so I can just pull a pin and take it off one tractor and put it onto another one. (Yes, you need to have more than one tractor.... That's the law in Iowa for old guys.)

Sometimes I feel like this tree; just split in the middle and folded over. This sort of tree is also known as a widow maker. I cut wood for fun and an excuse to spend the day outside in one of the most sacred shrines I can imagine. The woods are my special place. Don't worry kids, I won't be cutting on this one for awhile. I'm safety conscious about things like this - plus I'm not into pain. After all, if something bad would happen, it would be MY FOOT that log would land on. No thanks. So, think good thoughts and I'll be careful; but I'm going into the woods to play! All is well at Oakdale Farm.