Apple Cider

Another perfect fall weekend!  It rained in the early morning hours but dried out nicely for a morning of cider pressing and apple picking at Bishop's Orchard in Garfield, WA.  The Palouse used to have many orchards, as the climate is particularly well-suited to them, but wheat has long since taken over as the primary crop.  Few orchards are left in this area.  Bishop's is a moderately-sized orchard with five cider presses (available on weekends only) and lots of U-pick apples.  


According to Michael Pollen, in his book "The Botany of Desire," ancient varieties of apples make for poor eating.  However, prior to the 20th century, the primary use of apples was not for eating but for making hard cider.  In fact, the term "cider" used to refer exclusively to hard cider.  Hard cider has a low alcohol content, but was a useful (and tasty) way of making a drink that was safe to drink in the era before pasteurization and refrigeration.  


The cider I am drinking right now has no alcohol, but is still infinitely better than its watered-down cousin, apple juice.  I personally can't stand apple juice, but I can look forward to the shorter days of fall if only because of the promise of warm cider with cinnamon!

Washing the apples before pressing.

Liquid gold!

Half our jugs are filled!

Apples ready for transport!

Happy bees make happy apples (I bought some honey too!)

   

Best. Weekend. Ever.

And for no particular reason.  Well, for a few reasons, but all them are strikingly ordinary.  First of all, we had absolutely glorious fall weather.  The kind you just aren't guaranteed here in the Northwest, and certainly not on back-to-back days on the weekend.  Crisp and clear, with highs around 60--perfect.  We still haven't had a frost yet, which has the gardener in me somewhat...confused.  I am still pulling tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini off the vine and I love it.  This weekend we picked the last of the pears, and started on the plums.  More dehydrating in store for me!  Plums are so much easier to manage than pears, which have to be peeled.

In other news, it was a two-race weekend in the Inland Northwest Cyclocross series.  My husband rode really well (his best showing ever!), and we had a great time.  The home-field advantage helped--familiar courses for my husband and less driving for all of us.  Plus, good BBQ on Saturday and lots of time to visit with friends.

The temperature dropped again today, and it started raining.  At this point in the season, I don't think I'll worry about covering the garden when it does freeze.  It's time to be done with summer veggies, and time to dig up the root crops for storage.   Time to transition to winter.

This picture summarizes the weekend best.  A month or so ago, I tied back the holyhock so that I could open the garden gate.  Now the little sunflowers have bloomed and it looks like a big, lazy bouquet from my kitchen window.  A perfect end to a great gardening season!

Farm-to-Farm Bike Tour

Last weekend I rode on the Paloma Institute's Farm-to-Farm Bike Tour to raise money for farms in Haiti.  I went with a couple of my friends, but in typical Moscow fashion, I knew quite a few people on the ride.  All of the farms were in Moscow, but a couple of them I would actually classify as "people who live in old houses with really large yards."   In those cases, the families had good intentions to homestead, but found it to be difficult.  Except when you are homesteading within a mile of Safeway, it is much easier to just bag it and say you are "growing vegetables for the family and neighbors"  (note:  in the interest of full disclosure, I live a half-mile from Safeway).   


Of course there is nothing new under the sun, and the original homesteaders found homesteading to be pretty difficult as well.  Many of them had no idea what they were getting into when they started.  Some of my ancestors started homesteading in Kansas, but found droughts difficult to deal with and continued on to Tumwater, Washington.  Tumwater has pretty much the same climate as the one they left back east, with the exception that it is potentially even more mild.  The adversities of wagon trains/homesteading are also the reason that in all the times I played the computer game "Oregon Trail" on those first generation P.C.'s in elementary school, I never once actually made it to Oregon.  


Which isn't to say there isn't something worthwhile about at least trying to be somewhat self-sufficient, as long as you are also realistic about it.  I know I'm not going to be feeding my family entirely on things grown on my property.  However, it was somewhat reassuring to find out that everyone else's broccoli also looks pretty pathetic this year, and my tomatoes look better than some (thanks Doug!).  And I did get some good tips and saw a few pretty awesome farms, with people that actually are making a living farming.  Not to mention I got to eat some pretty good food, and had a great time hanging out with friends on a Sunday afternoon!

Our transportation for the day.

A very cool outbuilding at the first farm.

An even cooler outbuilding!

I wish I had a ladder like this!

I wish someone had told me BEFORE I dug up my garlic that you can hang hard-neck garlic to dry!

Another gratuitous photo of the awesome bike my husband built for me!

Affinity Farm in Moscow--totally awesome!