Cider House

I will take a bit of an aside from stories about our garden to tell you about some extracurricular gardening activities Josh has been up to lately.

Recently, a friend of ours moved and offered Josh some items he was no longer using. Josh lives for these moments. Among other things, he scored six demijohns . For those not initiated into the world of home-brewing, demijohns (or carboys) are large glass containers used for winemaking or brewing other forms of alcohol. Josh has some experience from before we had children (b.c.)with making apple cider and brewing up other fruit based alcohol beverages. He decided, as it is apple season, to test out his new equipment and brew up some cider.

He bought some Melba apples and yeast, peeled the apples and pureed them in our Moulinex, then set up some cider to brew.

Those of you who know Josh know that he does not believe in doing anything on a small scale, especially when he is having fun. We have been living on a tight budget these days, which Josh takes as a special challenge. As our garden's output has not been enough to significantly reduce our grocery bills, and our apple tree is too young to produce any fruit, Josh got creative in finding apples for free to expand his production capacity. He posted a request on Facebook to anyone who has an apple or pear tree, offering to remove any surplus fruit from their hands. Within days, Josh was filling our dining room with bags and boxes of apples and pears. It is amazing how many people we know who have an elderly neighbour who no longer can manage their tree or have given up a lifetime hobby of stewing vats of compote. The original two demijohns mysteriously reproduced themselves (I am not sure where the next two came from). A succession of juicers were borrowed off friends. Soon pear cider, apple-pear mix, and apple raspberry cider were bubbling away side by side everywhere you turned.

Josh put a second appeal on Facebook for empty flip-top Grolsch bottles, the kind that can be reused indefinitely with the built-in top. He hauled out our own collection, including two extra large ones which he has held onto for years because he liked them and was sure they would come in handy one day. He rescued them from my countless attempts at culling them, and is now gloating at me. Yes you told me you would eventually use them!

Sometime in mid-September, Josh cracked open the first bottle to taste. It was sour, and barely bubbling. I was rather unimpressed and gently suggested he work on perfecting the taste before going into mass production. He stoically ignored my critique and waited another week before giving me my second taste. I learned that I had been too hasty in my judgement, the first taster was far from ready. In a single week, the taste had filled out and sweetened, and developed a crisp, bubbly texture. I approved.

In the past month we have entertained extensively over Rosh Hashana and Succoth. We have served Josh's cider to members of both our families, out of town guests, friends and colleagues, and it had proved so popular that some of them agreed to pre-purchase some of his cider to furnish him the money to buy a second hand wine press (found on Kijiji, along with yet two more demijohns). Al, an old friend of Josh's, hooked Josh up with the owners of an abandoned orchard brimming with organically grown apples, who have allowed them to harvest everything for ten dollars a warehouse crate full. The two of them spent an entire day last week apple picking. Al agreed to house the press and the apples (no room here, too many tomatoes!) So far Al has pureed around 60 litres of apples, and he is just getting started.

In the meantime, on my home front, the sun came out finally for a few hours today after days of rain. I did a small harvest of tomatoes which had just a hint of orange, hoping they will ripen indoors. I am taking my chances, for once the frost hits my garden, all is done. I have no time to put blankets on the tomatoes at night like my friends up north do in late August, and I am not yet set up to do a four season garden (maybe next year). I also picked some green and hot peppers, and a couple of portions of broccoli for dinner tomorrow. We ate a lentil-vegetable soup for dinner made from potatoes, tomatoes, squash and tiny sweet potatoes from my garden as well as turnips (rutabagas?)from my mother-in-law. My kids ate tons of it. I have another batch of tomatoes drying in the oven tonight.

Yesterday, we took down our succah. Living in a Jewish neighbourhood, we have a special drop off site for the schach, the branches used on the roof of the succah. I uprooted some of the dead sunflower plants and tossed them in with my trunkful of cedar branches (the car smelled really nice). The leaves have finally turned from gold to orange and red. Happy fall to everyone!