Sweet & Delicious Apple Cider at Local Orchards
By Margaret Gilmour
While the Pick Your Own apple season is over––September 20th through October 28th this year––there are still plenty of apples to be had at area orchards.
In fact, since most apple varieties store well, there will be local apples available all winter.
And, of course, there is also apple cider.
I heat up a mug just about every afternoon throughout the colder months. One cupful fills you up, keeps you warm and is naturally good for you.
In Chester County there are five apple orchards, and two so close by in Delaware County I’d consider them local.
While all the orchards sell their own cider, each makes batches from different recipes: some carefully select which apples they’ll use, some toss in leftovers.
But what really makes a difference in the cider is how it’s processed, or better yet, not processed or unpasteurized.
I prefer the unpasteurized variety.
Not all orchards are able to create unpasteurized cider, though, due to restrictions placed on them by the food industry. Orchards mixing up truly unpasteurized cider are restricted to selling it only from their farm stand and to labeling it clearly as unpasteurized.
Barnard’s Orchards and Greenhouses in Kennett Square bottles some of the best, unpasteurized cider around. Their method of preserving its structure while killing bacteria is unique to this area: Rather than heat the liquid, they use an ultra violet light process. This allows them to sell the drink at their farm and at other local food places.
Here are the methods orchards use to make cider:
Unpasteurized cider: It’s the unprocessed, unfiltered, all-natural liquid that you get from apples. Apples get washed, cut, and ground before pressing. Results: darker in color, a bit cloudy, plenty of apple pulp, sweet, sweet, sweet. Cider must be refrigerated as it is perishable.
Flashed-pasteurized cider: The process is completed in just a few seconds—before the liquid really knows what’s happening to it– and in less time than full pasteurization. By minimizing the heat and holding time, you kill bacteria, lessen chemical and physical change to maintain more of original product. Results: maintains color and most of the sweet flavor. Not cloudy.
Pasteurized cider: Apple juice? (See below). Liquid is heated just below boiling point to kill all microorganism/bacteria. Process named after French chemist Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), the founder of the study of modern microbiology.
Apple juice: Filtered and pasteurized and vacuumed sealed. Results: light in color, a bit less sweet, more tangy, no pulp. No need to refrigerate. (more…)
