Catchin' up

The last couple of weeks have been a burstin' with activity here, and no computer (again) to write about it all. Hopefully I'll remember the most of it. The last time I wrote, we were making hard cider over at Sam and Jenny's place. We picked up a few bushels of apples at Apple Valley Orchards outside of Cleveland, TN. Since we didn't mind blemishes for cider making, we bought seconds, at $9 a bushel. We ended up using maybe $15 worth, another $5 for sugar, and a bit more for the yeast, caps, and sanitizing. Here's a look at our jug--

Over the next week, the jug was a lava lamp of activity. Not much reason for TV watching when you've got cider brewing! A week later, we came back for bottling. Becca's here squeezing out the cider from the bottom sediment.

We turned out a pleasant, refreshing alcoholic beverage for not much money and plenty of enjoyment in the making--not to mention the drinking of it. We bottled up about 60 bottles, and look forward to many nights of sippin' pleasure.

In the meanwhile, Jenny also surprised us with a box of cabbage in the kitchen for making sauerkraut. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures, maybe when we make our first batch of brats and kraut for dinner...

The good stuff

I'm a bit gadget-illiterate. I don't have a camera phone, and couldn't tell you how to use one. I am reasonably sure our cell phone isn't one, and have never received a picture with our phone before. So I must apologize for this post.

On monday night, I spent the evening with a couple of friends, a couple of cigars, a couple of beers, and a couple boxes of apples. And a monstrous glass jug. I have a picture of the event somewhere on my phone, but not on the computer yet, so you'll have to wait. And so will we, for our first batch of homemade hard apple cider to ferment, in about a month.

Then we'll spend another night with a couple of friends, a couple of cigars, and one big monstrous glass jug.