Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Saturday 3 November 2012

Juicing and pasteurising the apples.

 Washing the apples - they need to be clean and for juicing you need to use apples you would be happy to eat, whereas for cider this is not so important  - as the fermentation process of making alcohol kills off a lot of "bugs"


Putting the apples through the mill to scrat them




Scratted apple


 Apple press in action.


Juice beginning to flow! I decanted the juice into clean bottles and then pasteurised them at 75 C for 25 mins, to ensure they would keep without spoiling.



Bottles of juice after they had been through the pasteuriser - they will now keep, unopened,  for at least a year, if not longer.

The pasteuriser is a wonderful bit of equipment - I can make all sorts of cordials in it and it is also very handy for use as a "tea urn" !





2 comments:

  1. I've been wondering about buying a pasteuriser. It's lovely reading about it on your blog

    ReplyDelete
  2. Has anyone ever put damsons through a scratter with the apples?

    ReplyDelete

Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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