We (me) couldn’t wait two weeks for the apples to sweat. Good that we moved on it now, the apples were perfect.
We used 4 bushels of Gravenstein, one of Whitney crab apple and one of mixed apples consisting of honey crisp, snow and jazz apples.
Today we processed six bushels of apples – about 240lbs. Washed, de-wormed, cut rotten sections out, ground, pressed and… enjoyed fresh unadulterated apple juice.
We got about six gallons of juice, 5.5 is prepped for fermentation while we are enjoying the other half gallon just to sip now.
Acids were at .775% so we brought it down to .65% Sugars were at 15%
Tomorrow morning we will put the yeast in and the fermentation will commence.
Between all of the prep, processing and cleaning, it was a good 5-6 hours. But we had a good time.
1-2 weeks after the yeast goes in, we move it to secondary fermentation where it will sit for 4-6 months. Then on to bottling and another fermentation for another 4-6 months. This time next year we will be enjoying our first batch of cider.
Getting close to pressing. Waiting two weeks to sweat the apples for flavor – although the three bushels we collected today and one yesterday are probably ready to press now.
Fermentation stage one will take 1-2 weeks and then another four months for stage two and clarification. Then to bottling for 6-12 months. Once of the downfalls of a new cider maker is the impatience. We will have to see how long I last.
Since we live in Sonoma County, every summer & fall, it’s harvest season for apples. Gravensteins are the locally known varietal with significant influance from the famed botanist Luther Burbank.
That paired with my love for hard cider, we will be pressing apples this year. Last year I made a press with some plastic buckets and while it worked, it was messy.
This year, we have a propper fruit press and are planning the harvest and processing appropriately with dedicated gear and space.
One of our trees is an early variety of Whitney crab apple – deliciously crisp with the tight balance of tartness and sugars which we harvested today We go 40lbs from a five foot tree – leaving a few apples for the birds.
We have also sources through friends 300lbs or so of apples of different varieties to harvest later in the season.
The apples are now in storage to build some additional sugars and then to pressing.
Whew! The ride is complete – I was going to to say it’s over, but that doesn’t seem right. I’ve been bitten by the cycling bug so it will continue.
I’m a trekker. I like long adventures. 800km walks across Spain, 1400km rides across Argentina, 13,000km road trips through Mexico and Central America… many times these treks are personal pilgrimages. The allow me to be introspective and identify things in my life that need change or acknowledgement. Sometimes that realization doesn’t come until after the trip, but in this case it came fairly early. With this realization, I want to acknowledge a major part of my life – my wonderful wife @Ani who has been by my side through thick and thin for 30 years. A truly wonderful person whom I very much love and appreciate. THANK YOU Ani
Yesterday was the culmination of our trip. Guille had organized a parilla for us. It’s not just a BBQ, it’s a community event. Good food, good people, good stories throughout the night. I lasted till 0300 and gave up. Slept till 1030 which was a great reward for finishing the ride.
One thing I noticed about the ride vs training was the condition of my legs. I trained usually 50km four times a week with one ride getting longer and longer until I hit 100km. My legs constantly burned – for days after a ride. This wasn’t the case with the trip. My legs never hurt – even though I was carrying an extra 30kg of weight.
Another thing with training, is that I trained with temps between 15° and 23°. The coolest we rode with in the trip was 25° up to 41°. The heat was killer – especially on the hills. Not anything I could have trained for due to the seasonal difference.
End result is that the final days of the trip were a breeze – even though they were the longer days and we did nine days without a break, I tired but not exhausted at the end of the day.
The main thing I am recovering from now is the lack of sleep. There were days I only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep, and it was noticed on the ride.
I also learned what I like and don’t like about bike touring. While I am generally a destination oriented person, this long of a ride in such a short amount of time, and the high heat, didn’t allow for much tourism. We were unable to deviate from the route to see attractions due to schedule, heat and weather. I would like a more relaxed ride next time where there’s no real timeline and that would allow me to deviate as needed to see something of interest or just relax in a beautiful setting.
I have an idea of what I’d like my text ride to be and it’s about 1850 miles. Maybe something I’d do in 2021.
Here are some of my favorite pics of this trip – some of which have been posted before and some which have not.
There might be other trip posts but this is probably a closing post. Pizote Adventures will go back to my other project of my bus conversion project which is almost complete to a useable state.
Thanks for everyone following and providing comments and suggestions.
Today is our last day of travel from Puerto Iguazú to Buenos Aires. Just under 1400km.
We left on Jan 4th and arrive today. We stayed at a friends house last night in Campana and made record (for us) time to Tigre – 53km in 2hrs 10min. This included: ANOTHER FLAT for Guille on the same tire.
We’re now enjoying a beer on the river bank looking out over all the rich folks and their yaghts.
We do have a schedule today – we have a parilla scheduled for 1930 tonight in BsAs. We have about 30km to go. That’s five hours – seems we could walk that.
The plan is to take the riverbank all the way to BsAs and just relax.
We made it to Gualeguaychú without getting dumped on by the storm but we were definitely soaked through due to the mist from precipitation and trucks passing us. The sand on the roads made a mess of the bikes and we spent the next day sitting by the river, having a low key beer, bike maintenance, laundry, and moving to a hotel closer to the ruta. Gualeguaychú is a city that I would return to, seems to be a nice place for relaxing, and artisanal beers.
Guille got a flat so that had to be remedied. The next morning, we didn’t need to set our alarm as at 0600 on the dot, the new tube blew and woke us all up.
Another tube goes into the rear tire.
We travel to a small Regional shop just south of Ceiba where we were greeted by 13 too many obnoxious dogs that barked for the sake of barking and didn’t stop. Susana the proprietor gives us stay to spend the night under an eve so we pitch our tents 20’ from the ruta – non-stop road noise. I didn’t sleep much.
The next morning (this morning) we wake up and I’m in a particularly foul mood do to not sleeping and we laugh it off. Then we discover Guille’s rear tire is flat again.
20km down the road, Guille’s rear tire went flat again. Down to his last tube. Before he could put his tools away, it blows. I give him my last tube (I actually gave him all of my tubes on the trip – yay for tubeless). We make the rest of the trip in record time to Campana in the province of Buenos Aires. We are 73ish km from the finish.
We spent a leisurely afternoon in the park, drank some beer, slept and went out for pizza.
One more day and we will have finished the biking portion of the trip.
It’s been a run of days and a lot of kilometers. Some highlights:
As in many countries, there are roadside attractions to try and get tourists to stop and part with their hard earned cash. Argentina is not an exception. They have what are called Regionales or local handicrafts, art and food. For the last 250km or so we have been passing large yellow and black signs advertising preserved meats (of all sorts) for a place called Regionales Maria. We finally got there and were… underwhelmed. There were better places on the road that we saw. Here they just sold Knick-knacks and preserved meats. Nothing else for the kiddos to be entertained with.
We stopped in Concordia to visit with some friends of Guille. Absolutely fantastic people. Friendly, fun to talk with and hospitality above and beyond.
The idea was to spend a down day in Concordia but there was a storm approaching and the next two legs were long with few places to stay in between. We left Concordia the next morning and avoided all rain. Then big rain events were forecast for the following two days. From Concordia to Colón was the longest day yet at 118km, and quite hot in the later part of the day.
From Colón, our next stop was to be (still might be) Gualeguaychú. Another 100km day. But the forecast was rain all day long. We looked outside and the clouds were high but dark skies on the horizon. We decided to make a run for it and travel 30km to Concepción de Uruguay and see what the weather was like when we got there. We got some droplets on us but made good time. The last 5km was a great thunder and lightning show. The last 500m we got dumped on but you couldn’t tell the difference between the sweat and rain on our clothes. Taking refuge at a gas station, we are currently waiting out the storm. Right now there seems to be a respite but a heavy cell is on its way. It might skirt us to the north which will allow us to continue on to Gualeguaychú – where we will have a down day as we’ve been going for seven days straight now.
In California we have the fruit basket, the nut tree and Anderson’s pea soup. Here in Argentina they have Maria Regionales. And they sell preserved meat. Enjoy the variety…
After the storm, I realized I was missing my hat. I had to go searching for it. Lucky for me, I found it about 50m in a field caught up on some grass. The wind had blown it off the bike.
All of my panniers, the bike and worst of all the chain were coated in a sandy mud that was blown up and onto the bike in the storm. Even though the bike was under cover, it got everywhere. We had to do some maintenance and clean the chains and wipe down the bikes, but the panniers need to get a thorough cleaning – later.
We got to our destination at a service station and I found out that there was a hotel there (Guille wasn’t telling me about it ). So I got the room. We showered, did laundry and promptly crashed for a three hour siesta.
It was a good day and we had favorable winds after I asked Gouchito Gil for winds against my back.
). So I got the room. We showered, did laundry and promptly crashed for a three hour siesta.
