Apple Pressing
We’ve been offering community apple pressing services since 2020 and have learned a lot about the needs of our community and their apples. We keep tweaking our workflows, our locations and dates to reflect feedback and what we learn from each experience. Therefore in 2024, we are offering a new version of Apple Pressing as follows:
Just like the grocery store, we will have an Express Lane for folks that only have a few apples (approximately 2-3 5 gallon buckets).
For folks with larger volumes of fruit, reservations are required and you will be given a specific time slot. We will have a separate, dedicated processing line for people who have registered and have an appiontment. If there is a No-Show or more than 5 minutes late, we will take the next person in line.
What to expect:
Our workflow has three main stations.
Sort, chop and wash – you can do this at home to save time. In this phase, we put any apples that are not good enough to juice in the compost bin. We also remove blemished or bruised sections of apples and cut apples in half that are larger than 7 cm (3 inches). We use plastic baskets with holes to dunk the apples into a sink full of water with a drop of bleach for a quick rinse and disinfectant before running it through our machines. This prevents cross-contamination and produces juice that is safe to drink. Sometime apples can be the target of insects or birds that leave behind little gifts that we don’t want in our juice!
Grind – we have an electric grinder for large volumes and a manual grinder for smaller volumes. Both do a great job of breaking the fruit down into smaller pieces so that the maximum amount of juice can be squeezed out. We catch your apple pulp in a clean pail and when it’s full, replace it with a clean, empty container and bring your pulp over to our Pressing station.
Press – Your apple pulp is then transferred to one of our steel or wooden press barrels that are lined with a clean mesh bag. Using a heavy, metal disk and a corkscrew assembly, we squish your apples and juice gets strained through the mesh bag. The juice lands in our clean metal shallow sink that is sloped to the side with the spout. The juice will drain into a container you provide or purchase from us. Most people use one litre glass mason jars with a lid and screwband if they are planning to preserve their fruit through canning. Others like to use 4 litre plastic jugs with a handle. Because the opening of these jugs is pretty small, using a funnel is recommended.
In 2024 we hope to host at least 6 events – 3 in the Hazeltons and 3 in Smithers/Telkwa. Please see our Events page for details and phone the number listed for each event to make a reservation if you have more than the equivalent of 2 – 5 gallon buckets. You are required to bring your own juice containers as we will have a limited number of canning jars to sell on site. There is also the option to host an apple pressing party in your backyard – please call us directly to plan yours today!
