Hand Picked for the Season

Each season inspires sips and bites that showcase the flavors of the moment and reflect what’s happening in the natural world at Blackberry Farm. For Fall and Winter, apples are one of our favorite ingredients to celebrate. Seasonally-inspired creations such as apple cider vinegar, shrubs for cocktails and mocktails, apple butters and deliciously sweet and spicy apple cider all offer a comforting flavor in the cooler temperatures and a fresh farm-to-table experience.

Planning for our seasonal apple products begins long before Fall or Winter approach. The most important step when preparation begins is making sure we have enough apples. Because our apple orchard is only five years old, it’s not quite ready to produce as many apples as we utilize, so we work with local apple orchards to supply the rest. In doing so, we get to support the community as well as ensure we have all the apples we need for creations in the Preservation Kitchen and the restaurants. This year alone, we used roughly 1,800 pounds of apples in production.

When selecting apples, we consider the flavor profile. We focus on things like which apples would be great for vinegar and which apples produce the most juice. This year, we chose a mixture of Fuji apples and Braeburn apples, as these locally-grown varieties provide both the flavor profile and juice content desired. Since our apples are pressed in both a water pressure press and a manual hand cranked press, juicy apples are a must.

To use our manual hand cranked press, apples are selected, little bits like stems and leaves are removed, the apples are cleaned, and then they’re ready for the pressing process. Taking a small batch of apples at a time, they’re added to a grinder to be ground up. This process produces a sweet-smelling, chunky apple pulp. The pulp is then added to the press, and a wheel is turned to lower a board. With each turn and lowering of the board, more and more pressure is placed on the pulp pile, producing juice. This apple juice is what inspires creations like our apple butter, apple cider vinegar and apple cider. Once the pulp has been squeezed dry, it is removed, and the process begins again until all apples have been transformed.

Wondering about the leftover pulp? We believe in keeping things with the land as much as possible, as well as ensuring our animals on property are as happy and healthy as can be. The apple pulp will first go to our pigs on the Farm so that they can enjoy a sweet treat – which they love! If we still have leftover pulp, it’s moved to the compost pile in the Garden so that our team may use it to nourish healthy land for the next growing season.

Craving apple now? Visit BlackberryFarmShop.com to find Apple Butter, Apple Onion Jam, Mulling Spices and more!