Squeezing Apples

My brother Hank calls it the Cider Bee.  It's an old fashioned term for an old fashioned event, one that has been a tradition in my family for a long time now.

When my mom and dad were still living on our small farm in the Willamette Valley, they would host the annual family cider bee.  My generation were into adulthood, and our kids were small.  They spent their time playing in the sheds and barns, climbing in and out of the pick up trucks, drinking the fresh cider and eating apples and Mom's hot-out-of-the oven sticky buns.  Yum!

The apples we used then were mostly windfalls, apples picked up off the ground from neighbors untended trees, the kind you would see all over the valley around old farm houses.  The apples were wormy and definitely not store quality.  We used them anyway.

But the tradition goes back much father than that.  We were using my great grandfather's old cider press, from a time when it was necessary to live off the land.  The good apples would have gone into the fruit cellar, at least those that weren't already preserved in applesauce, apple butter, and canned apple slices for pies.  The windfalls and blemished apples would have been made into cider, some of which would have been fermented into cider vinegar, then used for pickling and sauerkraut. 

Now, in the latest iteration of this traditional family gathering, we meet at Hank's house near Chehalis, WA.  My uncle has claimed the old cider press so Hank bought a new one.  The apples are seconds that he buys from the Yakima area - no worms.  But the process is still the same.

There is one big difference this year.  It is the first without our mother and grandmother.  Mother died shortly after our cider bee last year.  It is the last of the firsts this year without her.  It is also the first time it has ever rained on our family festival.  We talked about this, of course.  Tears in heaven.

When Tom and I arrived from Seattle about 11:00 the production had been going on for about an hour.  With us came the rain, and a time out in the action.  We gathered in the garage where we would be eating later and visited over coffee and doughnuts.

Brother-in-law Mike and sister Laurie braved the drizzle to get back to work.

The level of apples in the half-ton tote lowered as the work progressed.

Corey, Jake, Isaac and Irene joined us an hour later, having first attended Isaac's soccer game.  The cousins were soon off and running around.

Brother-in-law Arnie manned the grills, cooking the chicken and corn on the cob.

Hank and his wife Cindy served as hosts, product quality controllers, and safety captains.

This was the first cider bee for son-in-law Corey.

His job was a strain :), but not hard.

I managed to capture this photo of all of my guys: Corey, Jake, Tom and Isaac.  Irene was off with her girl cousins playing pretend and giving the boys guff.  Jill was unable to attend, instead spending the weekend at a Mountaineering first aid training.

I had some good conversations with my sisters, remembering old times.  We all ate together and laughed and cried together. We handled the rain and finished the job.  Everyone had cider to take home.  Mom,  and Dad, and the Grandfathers would be proud of us.