Nina's Blog - Wednesday 26th November 2025
Wednesday 26th November 2025, 11:08
Elliptical trainer: 30 minutes, 8.32 km, 16.6 kph, resistance 1.
Elliptical trainer: 30 minutes, 8.32 km, 16.6 kph, resistance 1.
61-69, T
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Wednesday 26th November 2025, 16:00
Having a cup of tea and a slice of Sunday's farmhouse cake after completing a couple of the things I wanted to get done today: rack off the cider, use up the pastry that was left over from Sunday's baking.
Neither was exactly a roaring success. Out of what looked like about thirty five litres of cider I only got about twenty three litres of cider once I'd discarded the sludge. And that was after multiple passes through a colander and a sieve. I've been making my own cider from the apples in my garden for over thirty years and this as never happened before. When I juiced the apples they just disintegrated into mush instead of cleanly separating into juice and pulp. They behaved almost like pears. It seems to have fermented though but I'll have to see if it settles out before bothering to check with the hydrometer. Perhaps this time I'll have to buy some bentonite or similar to clear it, never had to do that with cider before.
I made a couple of jam tarts with the pastry but was careless in two ways: didn't make absolutely sure that the pastry had no holes so the jam leaked through in places which made it stick so I can't get it out of the tin and I forgot to prick it so the base ballooned up which made the jam slide away leaving a bald patch!
Grr!
Having a cup of tea and a slice of Sunday's farmhouse cake after completing a couple of the things I wanted to get done today: rack off the cider, use up the pastry that was left over from Sunday's baking.
Neither was exactly a roaring success. Out of what looked like about thirty five litres of cider I only got about twenty three litres of cider once I'd discarded the sludge. And that was after multiple passes through a colander and a sieve. I've been making my own cider from the apples in my garden for over thirty years and this as never happened before. When I juiced the apples they just disintegrated into mush instead of cleanly separating into juice and pulp. They behaved almost like pears. It seems to have fermented though but I'll have to see if it settles out before bothering to check with the hydrometer. Perhaps this time I'll have to buy some bentonite or similar to clear it, never had to do that with cider before.
I made a couple of jam tarts with the pastry but was careless in two ways: didn't make absolutely sure that the pastry had no holes so the jam leaked through in places which made it stick so I can't get it out of the tin and I forgot to prick it so the base ballooned up which made the jam slide away leaving a bald patch!
Grr!
