Home made apple cider

Living in the city, I do not grow a lot of my own food, however friends and family have gardens and no clue what to do with the harvest.

Making some sparkling dry apple cider the frugal way is not that hard:

1. Take as many apples as you can or want, and extract the juice. I use a second hand power juicer from OBH.
2. Check the OG (original Gravity with Hydrometer Float Adult)
3. Add champagne yeast and 1 tsp of nutrient.
4. 2 weeks later – Pour it to 2. fermenter thus leaving all the trub (all the bits and pieces)
5. Test the gravity on a regular basis. Ferment until the gravity reached 1005.
6. Bottle with a table spoon sugar per liter (put the sugar into the fermenter).
7. Leave to mature.

Although this recipe is for sparkling cider the degree of carbonation is fairly low. This is on purpose as bottles can explode if you use too much carbonation sugar.

Anything and everything can be used, so be creative and look up recipes on the Internet. Making your own food is very satisfying. Don’t stop at cider, make beer, mead and wine too.

Jam is easy, and you get the added benefit of not adding anything to it (no preservatives or added sugar). Happy hunting for things you can use.