“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core…”
— To Autumn, John Keats
Over the past few weekends we have been gathering our little crop of apples in preparation for cider making. It is all rather exciting! We’ve not made apple juice or cider before, so this will be an interesting little adventure for us.
The apples have come from the small number of trees that we have, none of which are identified as a specific variety. From our taste tests (and the faces that were pulled) we have come to the conclusion that we have one tree that produces cooking apples, with the remainder producing eating apples. No cider or juice varieties…yet!