Millie visits the “apple core” of Victoria and learns how anyone can make cider at home, from master cider maker Michael Henry. According to Michael, their operation is just “homebrew on a larger scale... It’s no harder than making wine or tomato passata at home”.
4:19 Making Cider at Home
2.5kgs of apples will yield about 1litre of cider (bruised fruit is fine, rotten fruit should be discarded).
Harvest and quarter apples, discarding rotten fruit (bruised fruit is fine)
Crush apple quarters to a pulp - use food processor, or a bucket and “basher” (large mortar/pestle)
Press pulp to extract juice, collecting in a large sterilised bucket.
5:58 Cover bucket securely and leave 24 hours in cool location, then add brewer’s yeast (and potentially dextrose/brewers’ sugar if required).
Recover bucket and allow to ferment for a couple of weeks, checking regularly
Siphon off into sterilised ‘demijohn’ bottles, leaving any yeast residue or fruit pulp and allow to sit for another week
Transfer into smaller sterilised “serving” bottles for further storage or consume!
Michael's tips for Growing Cider Apples
Pruning is important. Think about structure, light penetration and the balance of foliage to blossom/fruit production. Apples fruit on 2/3-year-old wood, so it’s an art.
Net or bag your fruit to prevent predation. The orchard lost around one fifth of their Pink Lady apples last week as they were not netted, and were literally stripped of all apples overnight by roos, although parrots and cockatoos are a menace as well. His tip for home gardeners is to net fruiting trees or bag fruit as it ripens - “birds in the burbs can be just as bad as they are out here” Michael said
Know your climate. Apples like cold winters, and many will even tolerate snow, but avoid planting where they may be impacted by spring frosts.
Know your position. They love full sun, but can tolerate part shade. Protect from strong winds and make sure you have compatible varieties to cross-pollinate.
Feed them up. When trees start to crop, fertilize in early spring, summer and autumn.
Background on Henry's
Harcourt, in the Central Highlands of Victoria, has long been the “apple core” of Victoria, the fertile sandy granitic soils and cooler climate of the region playing host to apple orchards since the 1850’s. While there are a few less farms nowadays than there was, the hundreds of hectares of apple orchards still operating blanket the landscape like a patchwork quilt, and supply around 40 percent of Victoria’s eating apples, including Granny Smith, Royal Gala, Fuji and Sundowner.
Henry's of Harcourt was one of the first cider makers to emerge from the Harcourt Valley and reignite the cider making industry in Australia some twenty years ago. Boasting 4500 trees, the orchard holds 43 different traditional cider apple varieties, and two well-known eating varieties of apples (Pink Lady and Golden Delicious) which are also used to make cider. In addition, they also grow 7 traditional pear varieties used to make pear cider, known as Perry. Many of the apple trees at this site are 50 - 60 years old, with some of the pear trees (which still crop well) closer to 80 - 90 years of age. They can easily remain productive for 100+ years.
Michael explains what makes a good cider apple, both in the orchard and at home - “for an easy-drinking cider, you want an apple with a tart, acidic bite to it, like the Pink Lady. If you prefer a sour cider, the Granny Smith is perfect - it has a flavour like a sour apple lolly, and makes a dry, puckering, but surprisingly refreshing cider. The Jonathon apple is great too, high sugar and high acid - it produces a sharp, sweet cider”.
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5 сен 2024
