What a shock to my system a few weeks ago to wake up to three inches of snow on the ground, and a thermometer that read 21 degrees! It's not particulary normal, but not unknown either, and I can recall trick-or-treating in the snow as a child. Alas, the cold has stripped us of most of our autumn colour though, with many trees shedding all of their leaves in one day. In the morning, the ground was white with snow - by afternoon, the snow was completely covered with leaves.
This photo is of cider making. Almost every year, my brothers gather apples from various orchards, gardens and the like, and make apple cider. In the USA, they are inclined to call apple juice "cider".
It all seems a very Heath Robinson affair, with various machines rigged up over the years to automate the process. It started out when my eldest brother inherited an old cider press from some elderly brothers adopted by our family. This year we pressed some 250 gallons!
Here is the press -
And the apples being washed and chopped -
It was all good fun although COLD COLD COLD. The good news is that the 6 gallons or so that I brought home with me have started to ferment nicely and it's lovely stuff.
