Looking back on October apple pressing

October was a month of non-stop apple pressing in the school gardens. Classes came out to learn how to make their own apple cider.



To make the apple cider, we used a fruit press. Fruit and cider presses separate fruit solids, such as the skin and seeds, from the fruit juice.

While apple juice is filtered, unfiltered apple juice is called apple cider.



Making cider

1. The first step involved cutting the apples and removing the apple cores.

2. Next, the apples were passed through an apple grinder. This step compresses the apples so that the juice is easier to extract from the solids.

3. The crushed apples were pressed in a cider press. This involved placing the fruit in the juicing cage, laying wooden blocks on top of the apples, and turning the silver ratchet handle to extract the juice.

4. The juice funnels into a the container at the bottom of the press, and we enjoyed the most important step of the process: drinking the cider! It was wonderful to enjoy this 100% fresh and natural apple cider, without any added sugar or preservatives! Read more about the nutritional difference between juice and fruit drinks.

Thanks to Annabelle Ho :)

Summer Recap

Here are some wonderful photos from the middle school summer internship in the garden. The students learned about growing food, cooking and nutrition, identifying plants and insects, and taking care of a garden. We took field trips to Community Servings in JP, Gaining Ground Farm in Concord, and the Food Project in Roxbury. We were lucky to have a weekly intern from the high school and a visiting staff member from the Urban Ecology Institute. One of the highlights was when UEI showed us how to use data loggers to measure light and temperature in the garden!