November 8th, 2006 - Apple cider
This weekend, I made apple cider and sauce with my steam juicer. The results on Saturday were so delicious, I made more on Sunday! I canned the results on Saturday, which was also successful.
For about $16, I made
7 quarts apple cider
3 quarts cranberry-apple cider
14 pints applesauce (2 used to make apple butter)
7 pints cran-apple sauce
The costs:
$8 20# apple “seconds”. Mom said what I got is sold as firsts around them. They were slightly bruised or hail damaged. Honestly, they could have been easily eaten.
$2.40 cranberries (locally grown, WI is, after all, the largest cranberry producer in the US)
$4 or so Priscilla apples that were too sour and Winesaps that Eric didn’t like
$2 or so the other apples I snagged to fill out Sunday’s batch from my eating apples
FREE yellow Delicious apples from the neighbors’ tree
I’m going to check out the orchard on Saturday to see if they are still selling seconds. It’s the end of the season, so I have no idea. But I’d happily spend another Friday night and Saturday cooking and canning for more cider! ‘Round here, fresh cider is about $3/quart (or more?) so we rarely buy it. Far too expensive!