A Family Tradition - Making Apple Juice

After a hiatus of several years and with the urging of our youngest son, we decided to make apple juice again this year. We started making apple juice very early in our marriage with Harv's parents. The first year we borrowed a press and after using it Dad and Harv thought they could build one themselves with a few improvements of course. Instead of hand cranking the drum that chopped up the apples, they added an electric motor and instead of winding the press down by brute strength, Harv designed a hydraulic press. (After all what more would you expect from a hydraulics expert)

These Klassen men will always find a way to mechanize and improve. This year was no exception. Rick jokingly suggested we run the juice through a heat exchanger and in the midst of laughing about it, Harv got this arrested look on his face and voila! Another time and mess saving innovation to the process. So over the years we have streamlined and have become pretty efficient at juice making.

The Juicing process starts with a visit to a farm in Keremeos where we go to get apples. It is owned by a Swiss juice maker who told us we'd have the best juice ever this year using his recommended mix of Jonagold, Cox Orange and Ambrosia apples.

Harv and I always enjoy the day trip to get the apples.

Apples are grown on smaller trees now - not the huge old trees we knew as children.

The apples were dumped into our truck.

It takes about 2 1/2 totes to fill the long box on our pickup.

We we get the apples home we choose a day and get everything set up. The press is pulled out of storage and washed, it's hooked up to an electric source and the hydraulics are put into place, the heat source and juice dispenser set up and the tables arranged. All available jars are gathered up and washed, lids and rings rounded up and everything taken to the shop.

In past years our parents and siblings from both sides helped but with 3 parents gone and our siblings with other obligations it was just our family and one niece this year but Dad came to watch and had the privilege of dropping the first apple into the hopper.

We're in business!

The whole family gets involved -

even the little ones. The grandkids get into the back of the truck and help Aunt Adele fill the wash tub with apples. I don't think I want to know how many apples are eaten in the process.

Adele washes the apples

and then loads them onto the ramp that funnels the apples into the hopper.

Monica guides them a few at a time, into the hopper and watches that it doesn't plug up.

An electric motor spins the chopper which is a drum fitted with many rows of nails. As the apples are channeled into the hopper, the nails chop the apples into small pieces.

The chopped apples fall into an oak barrel. When it is full it is slid forward under the press and a second barrel is placed under the chopper.

Dad and his friend keep an eye on it all over coffee and fresh platz.

Harv was always in charge of pressing the juice until this year when the torch was passed to Rick. He has to control the press carefully so that the juice comes out in a steady flow and to prevent "auspoofs"(a "klassenism" coined to describe the way the apple pulp comes flying out when the apples are pressed too quickly)

As the chopped apples are pressed, the juice flows through the slats into a bucket.

When the bucket is full, the pressed juice is poured through a screen to filter out any pieces of apple and then the bucket of juice is taken to the juice dispenser where it is heated using that handy dandy heat exchanger.

Tim checks the temperature of the juice. It has to be brought to a minimum of 160 degrees and held there for 15 seconds to pasturize the juice before it can be bottled and sealed.
My job is to fill the jars and top them with hot lids and rings.

We use an old coffee dispenser to fill our jars. It consists of two pots which we fill with juice inside a hot water jacket that keeps the juice at the right temperature as we fill the jars.

We used to have to heat the juice in canners on camp stoves. It would take so long for the juice to heat and then sometimes it would boil over making a sticky mess. Then we'd have to dip a pitcher into the hot juice and pour it into jars. The Juice dispenser makes it so much easier!

The finished juice - naturally sweet, no water or sugar added and absolutely delicious!

It was fun having people drop by to watch - Judy and her grandson from

http://judys-front-porch.blogspot.com/2010/10/applicious.html ,

Dad and his friend and Tim and Dulci's friends from Seattle.

The last thing to do is clean up and Grandson N and Grandprincess E were more than willing to man the pressure washer.

A big job done and lots to show for it!

500 quarts of juice to share and enjoy this winter!

A late look at Thanksgiving

It's been a busy week so I didn't get to blogging our Thanksgiving until now but I wanted to share a few photos of our family celebration.

We've been doing a few rennovations at our house and have enclosed the covered patio off our dining room. It's made it possible to change the postion of the dining table so we can seat the family with room to spare when we turn the table and extend it into the new room.
It worked very well.

I'd followed Judy's tutorial on folding the napkins into the "Bishop's Hat". As you can see my family tried them out and found that they could make them do double duty- first as hats and then as napkins. (Check it out at http://judys-front-porch.blogspot.com/2010/09/hat-tricka-napkin-folding-tutorial.html)

It was a lovely afternoon and after the big turkey dinner, everyone went outside to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine.

The children were so excited to rake up the leaves and jump into them.

The looks on their faces as they leapt into the piled leaves was pure joy!

Of course leaf fights are inevitable and so much fun!

So much to be thankful for!

Not only a roof over our heads but a home.

Not only food to eat but a wealth of variety and flavours.

Not only family and friends but love and support on all sides.

Above all for a God who not only provides for us

but who loved us enough to send His Son to save us

and provide the promise of eternal life.

Here's what's cooking...

Most of you already know that I've been immensely blessed to be a part of a recipe blog called Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Lovella Shellenberg started it back in June 2008 and I was invited to be a part of it in July that same year.


The 10 gals who contribute to the blog are as follows:
back row, L to R: Judy, Marg, Lovella
centre row, L to R: Julie, Betty Anneliese, Bev (that's me)
front row, centre to L: Ellen, Kathy Charlotte

These gals have become my very good friends through the blog and through our daily chat via the internet. We not only share our recipes with our readers but we share our everyday lives, our joys and our prayer concerns with each other. I can't describe the love and support I receive from these dear friends.

The MGCC blog has taken off and as of this month we are getting around 3600 hits per day totalling more than a million since we started. It's been alot of fun sharing recipes and we appreciate each person who follows our blog.

We've had some of our readers ask if we were going to do a cookbook.

Well the news is out (check today's post on the MGCC blog) that the cookbook is in editing right now.

We'd dreamed of doing a cookbook based on the blog but agreed that it would only happen if a publisher came to us. This happened earlier this year and since then we have been busy - cooking, tasting and tweaking; then cooking again. Then we had to take pictures of what we cooked and often our families and friends had to wait until the perfect photo had been taken. And then there was the recording and writing and rewriting. Now the manuscript is in the hands of the editors.

Although several of us knew each other prior to the blog, we did not all meet together in person until last month and that was because we had a cookbook contract to sign. We spent 3 wonderful days together doing what women friends do - eat. laugh, cry and talk.

The picture above shows us all toasting the signing of the cookbook contract.

So that's what's been cooking around here and we think it's reason to celebrate!!
The cookbook is due out in May and you can read the news release and pre-order a cookbook by going to the Mennonite Herald Press website at: http://store.mpn.net/productdetails.cfm?PC=1624 Any proceeds realized from the cookbook will go to an MCC project dedicated to feeding hungry children.

There's something cooking...

However, like my two precious grandchildren you're going to have to wait for it!