Wines I'm Making: Cider Again, But This Time Using Fresh Apples

Last February I made some very tasty hard cider by fermenting store-bought organic apple juice. This year our apple tree had a lot of fruit, so I thought I'd try making cider from scratch, using apples from the tree. These pictured are "Pink Lady" apples from our back yard. Tomorrow we pick up a rented apple press and some more apples from my brother and from a couple of friends with trees. I figure we'll need about 200 pounds to make it worthwhile. 200 pounds of apples should yield about 10 gallons of juice. That will translate into 107 12-ounce bottles with a retail value of about $140. Renting the machine costs $45. The yeast costs about $8. So, for a little more than $50 (discounting time and labor) we'll get a more or less three-fold return. Hope it all goes well. More soon....

Plants I'm Growing: Evidence of this Summer's Odd Weather (2010)

I doubt anyone living in northern California needs evidence of how strange the weather has been this year, but I was startled a couple of days ago to see what looked like buds on my apple tree. That was at the end of September. Now, in the first week of October, the tree isn't exactly in full bloom, but it is blooming (this is the variety called Pink Lady). In the photo you can see the buds and new flowers and apples in the background--this year's apples (although there were very few and none suitable for eating). Very strange.