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| How Cider is Made: |
We buy our apples from commercial growers, mostly just north of us here along the Missouri River from about St. Joseph to Waverly. The apples arrive in large wooden crates weighing about a thousand pounds apiece.
First the apples are dumped by a bin dumper which sits outside the north wall of the barn, they are tossed through an apple washer and are then elevated to the hammermill which grinds the apples into a pulp called “pomace”. Our press operator then pumps the pomace onto the press through a white hose. The press operator lays a mesh cloth atop an oak rack and pumps pomace onto the cloth. He folds the cloth in, lays another rack on top, and repeats this process six times.
Then, the racks and bulging cloths are rolled beneath the hydraulic press. This puts 3500 pounds of pressure per square inch on the layers of pomace. The juice is forced out of the pomace and through the mesh of the cloths. The juice is then pumped through hoses to large cooling tanks. After two or three days the cider is bottled into gallon and half gallon plastic jugs.
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| Apple Facts |
- Apples come in all shades of reds, greens, yellows.
- Two pounds of apples make one 9-inch pie.
- The apple blossom is the state flower of Michigan.
- 2500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States.
- 7500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.
- 100 varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States.
- Apples are grown commercially in 36 states.
- Apples are grown in all 50 states.
- In 2001 United States consumers ate an average of 45.2 pounds of fresh
apples and processed apple products. That's a lot of applesauce!
- 61 percent of United States apples are eaten as fresh fruit.
- 39 percent of apples are processed into apple products; 21 percent of
this is for juice and cider.
- The top apple producing states are Washington, New York, Michigan,
California, Pennsylvania and Virginia, which produced over 83 percent of the
nation’s 2001-crop apple supply.
- Apples are fat, sodium, and cholesterol free.
- A medium apples is about 80 calories.
- Apples are a great source of the fiber pectin. One apple has five grams
of fiber.
- In 2001 there were 8,000 apple growers with orchards covering 430,200
acres.
- The pilgrims planted the first United States apple trees in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
- The science of apple growing is called pomology.
- Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit.
- Most apples are still picked by hand in the fall.
- Apple varieties range in size from a little larger than a cherry to as
large as a grapefruit.
- Apples are propagated by two methods: grafting or budding.
- The apple variety ‘Delicious' is the most widely grown in the United
States.
- In Europe, France, Italy and Germany are the leading apple producing
countries.
- The apple tree originated in an area between the Caspian and the Black
Seas.
- Apples were the favorite fruit of ancient Greeks and Romans.
- Apples are a member of the rose family.
- Apples harvested from an average tree can fill 20 boxes that weigh 42
pounds each.
- Americans eat 19.6 pounds or about 65 fresh apples every year.
- 25 percent of an apple's volume is air. That is why they float.
- The largest apple picked weighed three pounds.
- Europeans eat about 46 pounds of apples annually.
- The average size of a United States orchard is 50 acres.
- Many growers use dwarf apple trees.
- Charred apples have been found in prehistoric dwellings in Switzerland.
- Most apple blossoms are pink when they open but gradually fade to
white.
- Some apple trees will grow more than forty feet high and live more than one
hundred years.
- Most apples can be grown further north than most other fruits because
they blossom late in spring, minimizing frost damage.
- It takes the energy from 50 leaves to produce one apple.
- Apples are the second most valuable fruit grown in the United States.
Oranges are first.
- In colonial time apples were called winter banana or melt-in-the-mouth.
- United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts the 2000 apple
crop to be at 254.2 million 42 pound cartons.
- Total apple production in 2001 was 229 million cartons valued at $1.5
billion.
- The largest U. S. apple crop was 277.3 million cartons in 1998.
- In 1999 the People's Republic of China led the world in apple
production followed by the United States.
- Apples have 5 seeds. There are five seed pockets, each with a seed, in
an apple.
- China is the leading producer of apples with over 1.2 billion bushels
grown in 2001.
- World's top apple producers are China, United States, Turkey, Poland
and Italy.
- The Lady or Api apple is one of the oldest varieties in existence.
- Newton Pippin apples were the first apples exported from America in
1768, some were sent to Benjamin Franklin in London.
- In 1730 the first apple nursery was opened in Flushing, New York.
- One of George Washington's hobbies was pruning his apple trees.
- America's longest-lived apple tree was reportedly planted in 1647 by
Peter Stuyvesant in his Manhattan orchard and was still bearing fruit when a
derailed train struck it in 1866.
- Apples ripen six to ten times faster at room temperature than if they
were refrigerated.
- A peck of apples weighs 10.5 pounds.
- A bushel of apples weighs about 42 pounds and will yield 20-24 quarts
of applesauce.
- Archeologists have found evidence that humans have been enjoying apples
since lat least 6500 B.C.
- The world's larges apple peel was created by Kathy Wafler Madison on
October 16, 1976, in Rochester, NY. It was 172 feet, 4 inches long. (She was
16 years old at the time and grew up to be a sales manager for an apple tree
nursery.)
- It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider.
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