Day 1 - Hard Cider 2008

Today's harvest was glorious!!!

My day started at 7:15am. To get ready for the long and dirty day, I threw on my old Carhartt bibs, a pair of broken boots, and jammed a ratty sun hat on my head.

I arrived at Dan's place a little after 9am. I found him in standing in the driveway hosing out the plastic bins that we were going to use to haul apples.

I was happy to learn that Dan's dog, Sampson, "The Ghandi Of Dogs," was going to pick apples with us.

Here he is in the back of my '86 Toyota exhuding his dog like tranquility.

First stop, Eldorado Springs. The trees that we picked last yeare were empty this year. On the way into the canyon we passed this tree. Sadly, because the tree was growing on a steep embankment, we couldn't reach the primo apples at the tippy-top.

We did, however, pick the first apple of the season off of it.

Here is the first apple of 2008.

I always get really tired when I see the first apple of the season. 10 months from now, after the long and tedious process of sweating, crushing, pressing, fermenting, stabelizing, racking, aging and bottling the "green" hard cider, I'll be able to enjoy its delicious essence.

Here is me at our third stop of the day. The tree was huge and drooping with fruit, but we only harvested one box.

Here is an arty shot of the apples in a container. This was taken in a scorching parking lot of a condo complex in South Boulder. I think we harvested three big boxes of apples.

There's Dan, "The Cider Man," up in an apple tree.

After lunch we went to our next "appointment." It was a beautiful tree slouching with crimson tinted apples. I didn't notice at first, but we weren't the only ones harvesting fruit that day. At our feet there must of been thousands of busy hornets eating the rotten fruit on the ground.

After harvesting the crimson apples, we decided that it was time to go home.

In all, we picked 7 1/2 big boxes of apples today.

Here is a picture of what Dan's living room now look like.

Last year, I stored 1000 pounds of apples in my living room. At night when it was really quiet I could hear the maggots eating the apples. It sounded like a bunch of tiny hands crumpling litte rice paper squares. I'd never heard anything like it. I thought it was cool.

My brother's girlfriend, Lee, didn't think it was cool. In fact, she hated it, especially after I flicked a writhing maggot at her.

We found eggs and worms and egg sacks everywhere for months.

Its so worth it!!!