There is an apple orchard 20 minutes west of the farm that I am currently living on. For the last couple of years, only a few select species of apples had been harvested. The rest had been going to waste. This year we organized our efforts and created an apple gleaning event that saw approximately 19,000 apples harvested and divided between a group of 45 friends and family members. About half of the harvest was then processed into cider – making approximately 1000 litres.
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The purposes of the event were to understand the production process, create a fully cooperative event, enjoy food which would otherwise be going to waste and to have a good time. And we did. Friends and friends of friends all packed in cars came from London, Hamilton, Toronto, Guelph, Peterborough and Ottawa. Most arrived Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon.
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| 6 crates picked, 3 used for apple cider |
While Friday night was spent relaxing and preparing, Saturday was production day. Within 3 hours we had the majority of the apples picked and on their way back to the farm where they were later processed. While some people bottled cider, some were boiling apples for apple sauce while others made dinner for everyone at the event. All the while a few good glasses of cider and whiskey were joyfully passed around.
The production line included 4 stations: People at Station 1 moved apples from the large crates into the 'pulper'. Once a full bucket of apples was pulped (about 1 minute) others would move the bucket into the greenhouse where there were 3 different cider presses set up (station 2). The person who brought the pulped bucket of apples from the pulper would hand off the bucket to those at the cider press and within 3 minutes the entire bucket would be pressed into a large pot. Once the entire pot of cider was filled from those at Station 2, the pot would be poured into a large barrel (Station 3). Here, as people from Station 2 were pouring their newly pressed cider into barrels, people at Station 3 would siphen the cider from the barrel into a small 1 - 2 litre jug. Anyone at Station 4 would put a cap on the jug, and thus concluded our cooperative assembly line! It was definitely the sweetest assembly line I've ever been apart of.
People left on Sunday with cars full of apples, cider and lists of drop off locations to those who couldn’t make it.
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| Community Apple Cider Production Facility - Seaforth, Ontario |
