anyone up for some hot Dickens...

oh wait. this is a PG blog... (surely some Santa Cruz KPIG listeners will remember that line and be able to fill in the blank...)

So, we gathered with a few other families today and pressed many of our apples and a variety of others gathered from around Rockland into yummy, all nat-u-ral cider. Sooooo gooooood!! It was even worth a short trip to the emergency room on my part.

Let me explain.

The press was happening at a friends home and farm. Another family will soon be venturing into a tofu making enterprise, and it so happens that a hydraulic tofu press will also press some mean cider. After some tinkering in the morning, it was going strong by the afternoon. A typical cider press is done manually and has a part for crushing the apples prior to pressing. Not the case for the tofu press which is meant for tiny soy beans, so the crushing part was left to the muscle power of the group. A couple of very appropriate tools were procured- one, a super heavy, steel tamper. Imagine a 9x9 steel square (flat) on the end of a steel pole. Doable by one person, easier going with two, raising and dropping the tamper on a few gallons of apples at the bottom of a 50 gallon plastic barrel. The tamper crushed the apples into small enough pieces that could then be chopped even smaller by another tool that was many small blades on the end of a long pole. Probably meant for breaking up clods of dirt in the field.

Anyhoo, all was going along swimmingly. Kids were going nuts, wild inside, wild outside. Adults were industrious and social, wine, beer conversation, cider. Chili, risotto baked in a pumpkin (YUM!) and other goodies were warming inside. Plans were being laid for a bonfire.
After doing some duty inside with Liam, i went out to lend some energy to a few of the final batches needing to be crushed. Three of us were taking turns holding the barrel, using the tamper, and gabbing. My friend J had just finished tamping and let go of the tamper. Being heavy steel, it promptly fell over. Onto my face.

Ouch.

By the look of horror and concern on my friends' faces, i could only assume that there was some serious damage. There was running blood, that was for sure. The pain was not too bad. I was a bit scared to touch my fear that it was in fact my nose that had been hit and crushed.

Thankfully, no. It did cleave a nice gash just to the left of my right eyebrow, about 1/2" long. Deep and gaping enough that a visit to the ER was in order in case stitches were needed.

I'll save you the ER story, except to say that i got out of there with a bit of Dermaglue (think super expensive super glue) and a tetanus shot. Probably a $500 pasting job billed to our insurance. Thanks, Live World.

A memorable first cider pressing, to be sure. We came home with a story and 9 gallons of fresh pressed cider for fridge and freezer. Schweet.