Today’s liqueur is raspberry with cherry brandy and vodka. I had only a 1/2-pint of late-season, FM berries for this batch. Next year, if our own berries don’t come in big-time, I’ll buy a flat or two - this version was far and above my favorite of everything I’ve tried this summer (sour cherry, black berry, blueberry and as-of-yet-untested-apple). Bright, raspberry flavor and not too sweet.
The spent raspberries are amazing, also - plump and firm, and full of boozy goodness.
I also did 20 trays of apple slices in our food dryer.
We gave our new cider press a test run today. We had a smallish basket of apples (half-bushel maybe?), and the yield was 3 pints of juice with a high acid level. I water-bath canned it.
It was fun! We’re going to position ourselves for a good supply of apples next year and make a bigger batch.
I didn’t mean to delete my post but now I can’t edit it! Here it is again:
I’m gathering ingredients for a batch of savory tomato jam tonight. It’s been a couple years since I made any, and I miss it. It’s so good with cheese and crackers, and now that I make my own sourdough crackers (thanks, pandemic!) I must have some tomato jam.
I just tried these. Holy cow. I take back everything I said about canning apples. I will be canning them with brandy from this day forward to my bitter end.
The apple season was hit and miss around here this year - mostly miss, but we were able to give it a test run. It’s super fun to work, and pretty easy to clean up (hose it down). With the grinder, you just chuck everything in there whole - no prep work except picking the apples.
It takes a lot of apples to make juice! Out of approximately a half-bushel, we got 3 pints of juice. The deer ate everything that was left-over after pressing.
I’m looking forward to a better harvest next year.
I’ve never made hard cider, but would love to someday. My BIL made it one year from his home-pressed apples - it was awesome!
I think the apples would be terrific on ice cream or pound cake, or possibly even baked into a small tart or similar. Those are the fantasies playing about in my head. In reality, I’ll probably consume most of them plain to save on the calories.
Many years ago my parents got us a Jack LaLane juicer. Prob something they saw on a tv infomercial. We’ve almost exclusively used it for apples, and it works great. Even for large quantities. We typically go apple picking in Oct, get way too many. Talking like 50-80 lbs. Eat them until we are sick of them and they’ve gotten a little wrinkly. This is typically around T-day. Then toss them into the juicer. Alone or with carrots or beets or cukes or pears. That juice will go in the freezer for another day. Good stuff. Commercial apple juice does not even come close. They filter all the flavor out.
I came across a bag full of organic Concord grapes (yum!) and had to refrain from snacking on them. I made them into juice that I froze and will make into jelly at another time. One bag (old style ‘banana bag’ yielded 5 cups juice, even with the little bit missing from snacking. I did not like grape products as a younger person, but this fresh Concord grape thing is a treat. I did pull out my Weck Jar canning book just to see all those goodies in the pretty jars.
