How to can Cider to keep for the winter

 

In a previous post, here, I told you about our pear picking trip.

Today, we met our friends with their truck full of pears at the local cider mill where we learned about the pressing process.

We helped with the bottling.

We got to bring home 13 gallons of fresh cider for our efforts. 

Our friends freeze theirs, but my freezer is still full of the cow we bought in the spring, so we needed some other ideas.

I have more basement pantry shelves available than I do freezer shelf space. So, tonight we canned some using the water bath method, processing 20 minutes. 

If you are just learning about canning, I suggest buying a Ball Canning Book.  I prefer the older versions if you can find them because the recipes are often simpler and require ingredients I usually have on hand. 

If you've never done any canning at all, and aren't ready to buy a book about it, then I suggest Taste of Home's online directions to help you start your first time.

This is my first time canning cider, so we'll have to see how it lasts. We did not add anything to the cider or do anything special to prepare it. It does get pasteurized at the mill, but no preservatives are added. We just poured it into our clean jars and processed them in the canner for 20 minutes. That's it. 

I did hear the lovely pinging of jars sealing so I'm optimistic about my results.

Next, I've been researching what it takes to turn my fresh cider into hard cider. I think we will be learning about fermentation this week.