Personal pages/Season 2021
Some initial notes - We had frost in Spring, ruining the fruits from many blooming trees. Right now, it looks like this:
- Freitag
- moschtbire, maybe 4-5 trees
- golden delicious, maybe 2 trees
- zwetschgen, one tree.
- Bentzelheim
- berner rose, one tree
- belle de boskoop, two and a half trees
2021/09/17 harvest started. picked four crates of Boskoop at Bentzelheim.
2021/09/17 the shredder wasn't working, it was locked up hard, so I had to spend some time trying to fix it. I tried to remove the motor, but that seems difficult. I used some plant oil for lubrication.
2021/09/18 the shredder is working again, must have shaken loose whatever it was. Have to think about preventing this for next year. I'm guessing my high pressure cleaning will have forced some water into a bearing, where it rusted?
2021/09/18 have shredded and pressed 5 crates worth, looks like about 70litres of juice. It is delicious. The trester went into C1.
2021/09/20 16 x 2 litre pasteurised and bottled. Next time, fill up bottles first, then pasteurise nine bottles at a time.
2021/09/20 picked another crate of Boskoop. It's the typical situation now, without a storm, only few apples drop by themselves.
2021/09/22 picked about half a crate of Boskoop and maybe half a crate of Berner Rose.
2021/09/23 picked about half a crate of Boskoop, shredded the Berner and the Boskoop and stuck them in vats, with yeast. To be topped up of course.
2021/09/24 picked a half crate of Boskoop, and a few Berner.
2021/09/26 picked a crate of Boskoop, and a few Berner. Both shredded and added to vats C4 and C5, respectively.
2021/09/27 picked 3/4 crate of Boskoop, and a few Berner.
2021/10/1 shredded about two crates' worth, into C9. Also shredded a few Berner and added.
2021/10/3 have racked the boskoop cider, 1st time. The bubbling has reduced a lot, more like twenty seconds interval.
2021/10/3 have added another 4+4 to the Boskoop trester on the right..
2021/10/4 picked another crate of Boskoop, then washed, shredded and pressed two crates. Output was about 25litres which I'll add yeast to (vat D1) and let it sit before I siphon off 20 litres into the oak vat.
2021/10/9 there is about two crates of boskoop waiting, plus some Berner Rose and a portion of Golden Delicious. Even a few Moschtbire.
Berner Rose
This one was very difficult to juice last year. The mush compacts and the juice stops flowing. It looks like the tree has a good amount though, so I'll see if I can gather 100kilo and just ferment.
2021/10/1 I'm beginning to wonder if there will be enough to fill a vat.
The two old presses
They were both sold in September, one at 49, the slightly bigger one at 100. Very good.