AppleFest 2013

Penny Thackery at work cutting apples.

Carole Ellison at the press

A week ago, we braved the rain and wind to go to Carnation Valley to join our friends, Nancy & Van Strom,  at their annual AppleFest event.  This event is all about crushing apples for cider followed by a delicious dinner on our hosts' covered porch.

Though it was cold and rainy as we were driving to the party, when we arrived the rain began to clear so that it was positively sunny by later in the day.  To get us in the spirit of the project, we began with fresh apple juice on ice mixed with rum.  Ken pulled up a chair where he could supervise and keep a close eye on the work being done.

Michele & Dan Heidt at the press

There are many sticky jobs that are part of producing apple cider including washing the apples in a big old-fashioned bathtub, cutting the oversize apples in half so they will fit in the press, moving the apples from the bath to the press in buckets, pouring the apples into the press one or two apples at a time, twisting the press to squeeze out the juice, catching the juice in a pitcher and changing out the pitcher as needed, pouring the juice into bottles and capping them and cleaning out the "apple slush" of peels, worms(?), stems, etc that are trapped in the screen and don't make it into the juice.  The "apple slush" was all loaded into the blade of a front-loader to be driven to a neighbor's home later for his pigs.

Susan Taylor, Toni Hoffman, Joyce McCallum, Nancy Strom

Many of the guests took part in the production.  Susan Taylor handled catching the juice for much of the day, Carole Ellison was twisting the apple press, while Bob Cremin made dozens of trips back and forth from the bathtub to the press with buckets of apples. Michele & Dan Heidt took a turn at the press too as did several others.  Penny Thackery, Arlene Wright and I took turns cutting apples in half as needed. Along with others, Toni Hoffman and Jan Rogers poured juice in bottles.

If we needed to choose one person who worked non-stop on the apple-pressing project from beginning to end, it would be Carole Ellison, whom I think we should crown as AppleFest Queen!

Ken Hatch and Jan Rogers

A number of the guests came bearing hors d'oeuvres to keep up everyone's energy during the hard work of apple pressing.  I was especially happy to see Joyce McCallum arrive with her devilled eggs and Jan Rogers with her warm sausage turnovers.  And for dessert, Toni Hoffman, Trudi Syferd and Mary Nelson brought three different versions of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  Yum!

Several of the ladies escaped to the kitchen when it appeared to be time to help with dinner.  There were many cooks in the kitchen with varying opinions on the "right" way to prepare every food item.  I do have to say that Nancy has the patience of a saint because she was able to handle all the "help and advice" without batting an eyelash.  And in spite of the many cooks, everything turned out absolutely delicious!

Tim Premselaar shows his appreciation of Tom Raschella.

Some of the other guests not already mentioned included Carol & Spike Anderson, Sue & Tom Raschella, Sandi & Tim Premselaar, Ken Hatch, Doug McCallum, Dave Syferd, Diane & Gordon Kuenster, Nancy & Denny Rood, Mick Thackery, Rod Hoffman and Susan & Gary Neumann.

Arlene Wright with Carole Ellison, AppleFest Queen.