Making Apple Juice

********Last week, my son-Jared, reminded me of how delicious apple juice is when I make it with my juicer. That's all he had to say to get me motivated.

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Saturday morning, Lon and I went to the Apple Hut and bought a BIG bag of small and inexpensive apples sold specifically for making juice. They were perfect apples, just too small to be sold at the going price. We paid $6.00 for nearly a gunny sack full.

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Saturday afternoon and again yesterday afternoon, I went to work. The photos above tell the story, but you're not getting away that easy. Since I love to write, I must describe the process. Hang around; you might learn something. The weather has been beautiful so I did my work outside and on our screen porch.

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1. First I rinsed the apples in small batches, enough to fill the plastic colander, (they'd been washed thoroughly at the Apple Hut).

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2. After the water had drained off, I took them to the table on the screen porch.

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3. On Saturday, I fed whole apples into the juicer. Yesterday afternoon, I cored and sliced the apples before putting them in the juicer. (Later, I'll tell you why I cored them). When I pressed the apple corer into the apple, juice flew everywhere. I needed a shower and to wash my eye glasses when I was done!

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4. I turned on the juicer, added the whole apples or apple slices to the juicer and used the pusher to press the fruit against the spinning blade. This isn't as easy as it sounds. If I didn't get the pusher into the chute quick enough, the blade would toss apple slices back out, sending them in all directions. It was quite a battle between me and the machine!

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5. When the resulting juice filled the bowl, I poured it into a glass jar. I read that plastic containers can affect the flavor of the juice. After repeating this process several times, I filled 4 jars on Saturday and 5 yesterday.

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6. Voila! Tasty, delicious and nutritious apple juice is ready to chill.

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I read on the internet, that apple seeds contain tiny traces of cyanide. I also read that a person would have to eat hundreds of apple seeds to have any kind of a problem. I discovered this after I made the first batch on Saturday. That's why I cored the apples the second time I made juice. Since I hope to make several more batches of juice, I didn't want to take chances. If I get lazy, I may juice some again without removing the seeds.

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After chilling (the juice and myself) for a few hours and shaking the jar before opening, I poured Lon and myself each a glass and we smacked our lips when we were done. I called Jared on the phone and told him his jars were ready for pickup.

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If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I figure we can cancel our health insurance for as long as the juice lasts!!