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!


Thursday 7 November 2013

Even more apple stuff !


Having scratted and pressed over 100Kg of apples so far this week we now have 25 bottles of pasteurised juice and 30 l of  cider on the go.

so as it was fine today, we went and picked some more apples,


 

 It was glorious outside, sunny and crisp and with just a hint of wind and a fabulous blue sky.


Compostman picking apples


And, just to prove I do actually do, do some of the work around here (!) I graciously allowed myself to be photographed in action..


 We weighed each bucket




 
 and then I graded them into "juice" or "cider" quality.




 This is some of the pommace from the scratting and pressing we did earlier in the week. All added to the compost bins now, to make some beautiful compost next year :)


After a morning of apple picking another 150 Kg now await my attention to be turned into something else.



 I think tomorrow, I will be mostly pressing apples again!

8 comments:

  1. My you have been busy with apples. I am just about keeping up with cooking the ones that my neighbour keeps giving me.

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  2. We have a bumper harvest this year and I can't stand to see them wasted! I have also been dehydrating and chutneying and cordial making and cooking and freezing apples - think I will dream about them for many weeks to come :)

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  3. It's a shame you don't know anybody with pigs, they love the remains of cider pressing.

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    Replies
    1. I do, Dc but they all have orchards as well, so have lots of their own :)

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  4. How come the chickens don't get the pommace is it too rich? Does it ferment and get them drunk!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Isla, they do get it but they are so sick of the sight of it now that they turn their beaks up at it :)

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  5. Much better than last years apple harvest! I think there will be some good cider made this year!

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  6. This sounds very much like we were during July/August with our figs... we stopped caring at 60kg and then had to simply let them fall... we ended up so sick fed up of figs... now, apples, we don't have any of our own yet (orchard planting next year I think) but I was wondering, when you said you graded them for juice or cider... how do you choose? Or is it different types i.e. this tree is cider and another one is juice?

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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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