Chopping, scratting and pressing

Today the weather has been mild and still. It was very pleasant to be outside; you could enjoy the visual and olfactory delights of autumn without getting cold or wet. It was perfect weather for apple pressing, part of our annual cycle of activities. In fact I find it to be one of the most satisfying of smallholding jobs with the added benefit of immediate rewards.

We've already pressed most of our crop of apples and some more from a friend's orchard. We have bottles of juice on the go, in the freezer, and some more juice transforming itself to cider. Today a non-smallholding friend came over to our place with some of his windfalls to take back home again as juice. We spent a couple of hours chopping, scratting and pressing. He did not know what varieties of apples they were but the apple to juice ratio was impressive, producing 14 litres (30 odd pints) of juice.

The pigs, hens and turkey's, of course, enjoyed a share of the apple mash, so nothing went to waste. 

Non-smallholding friend filling the scratter with roughly 

chopped apples to get them ready for pressing. The apples 

in the picture produced 14 litres of juice.