Making apple cider

A few nights ago, we were lying in bed when my farmer boy asked me how I am managing to keep my feet on the ground with all the book buzz going on around me. It was an interesting question and I had to think about it for a bit before answering.

In the end I realised that the answer is simple. There is so much gritty, real life stuff going on here all the time that I have no choice. None at all.

In amongst the interviews and the photo shoots and the articles and the blog posts and the small film and the gorgeous comments from you guys, is my real life and it is unstyled and not a bit glamorous.

There are the girls and Bren and their adventures and issues, the ever changing farm stuff, the house work, the bills, the crazy bunnies, the mud, the desperate list of garden chores, the running low on toilet paper, the hungry fires, the stinky fridge, the breakfasts, lunches and dinners...the list is endless and urgent and ignorant of any book I may have written.

Having said all that, last night after seeing my book in the windows of two book-shops in Melbourne, it did take me longer than usual to calm down and get to sleep. What a crazy ride. What an incredible adventure. I am grateful for this experience beyond measure.

But I'd best be off now and clean up the crazy sawdust mess the bunnies have just made and do last night's dinner dishes...blah!

Lots of love to you guys and thank you, over and over....x

Cider house bottling.

Yesterday, nine months after that March day we pressed our autumn-harvested apples, we gathered again for the next part of the process. For nine months those vats of apple juice with added champagne yeast have been bubbling away and becoming cider. Yesterday was bottling day.

First the collected bottles were soaked in a sterilising solution.

Then a teaspoon of brewers sugar was added to each.

The bottles were filled with cider.

And then capped.

Of course, as with all the best community working bees, the working bit was only a small part of the fun. There was lots of music, a feast, happy-wild children and a fair bit of taste-testing too.

One day I'll work out how to add sound and video to my blog. These words and photos seem a bit one dimensional without the background music track to really get you in the mood.

In March I ended my blog saying how much I love community and celebrations of season and fruit and time, I can't think of a better way to describe how I feel today too.

My farmer boy has himself a little hangover this morning.
I wonder how his Dad is holding up.

Happy days to you my friends.
I hope yours are filled with music and friends and a glass or two of something fruity.

Big love. xx

Cider-fest.

It really feels like Autumn!

The early mornings and evenings are getting chillier and darker by the day. The light seems different somehow. Baskets of summer fruit and veg are slowly being jammed and bottled and put away for leaner times. The rows of the kitchen garden are being picked, pulled out, turned over, composted and seeds of winter greens are being planted. And summer's apples are finally ripe and being plucked from the trees.

At this time of the year the farmer boys drive around the area with trailers on the backs of their cars scouting out and picking from the wild apple trees they find along their ways. Baskets and buckets and bags are filled with the juicy fruit.

Last weekend families and friends gathered with their apples nearby at Liam and Kath's for the annual cider pressing.

Farmer Bren brought along his cycle powered apple scratter/grinder/mulcher and others brought their inventions too. Whole apples are fed into the top and turned into apple mush that comes out the other end.

Oops, and there's the photo of me in the ear hat you asked for...

After the scratter, the apple mush is wrapped up in bits of calico called cheeses and layered between wooden racks. Pressure is applied to the top of the pile and the apple juice is sqeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezed out and caught in a bucket below.

The apple juice is then drunk by little passers by, or poured into bigger drums for cider.

The dried out, squished apple cakes look like this at the end. Apparently they cooked one on the fire after we'd left, but from what I hear they wont be repeating that again.

And then of course there was the drinking of last years' cider, the campfire cooking and the Cider House String band.

I barely saw my kids the whole day. They were off running around with friends having as much fun as we were.

I love days like that. I love community and celebrations of seasons and fruit and time.

I do love a bit of cider too. Don't you?

Bye!