I have a good friend who has a cider press from the 1860s and every year they invite everyone over for an apple cider making party. They ask everyone to bring a dish to share and a bushel of apples. This year, we got smart and picked up the windfallen apples and ugly/spotted apples on our apple tree since these are perfect for cider (and they're free). I made up a batch of my famous pumpkin dip and off we went.

Here are some photos of the cider press.

The press works like this...you stick the apples in the top...someone cranks the grinder thing (that's not an easy job!)...When the barrel is full of apple pulp, you move it to the front of the press where it is, well...pressed and the juice runs out into the silver buckets you see there at the bottom. It's then strained through cloth and bottled.

This year's cider season -- locally -- will be quite different without Fuhrmann's Cider Mill which burned to the ground last year and was not rebuilt in time for this year's cider season. The good news is -- there are lots of places, locally, to get your cider fix. Check out this story -- which ran in the Erie Times-News last week and contains a list of places you can still get cider.

Unless you have a friend with his own cider press.

Cheers to cider season! (and, uh...no that's not cider...and today...I'm really, really wishing it had been.)