Hello, I'm Liz Zorab and this is Byther Farm
and today I'm going to show you how
to make apple cider vinegar just from
apple scraps.
It's apple season and my
superb neighbors have allowed me to go
around and collect as many windfalls as
I like. These apples are fantastic, we
absolutely filled the freezer with
stewed apple, I made applesauce for the
larder and also made apple cider vinegar
and that's what I'm going to show you
how to do today. So I've collected my
windfalls. I've actually got just over 20
pounds of windfalls. And there's about 5 or 6
pounds of them here at the moment and
all I'm doing is wash them, now I gave
them a thorough wash in cold water to
wash any dirt off them, because these are
the ones that fell onto the floor. And then
just cutting, I'm cutting in straight
lines around the core, so I end up with a
square, well almost a square core. And
the core I'm keeping. Then all of this
I'm checking over and any bits that have got
coddling moth in them or are bruised
are going into the bucket for the
compost heap. If you're outside the UK
now you can feed all these peelings to
your chickens, but here in the UK
nothing that's been in your kitchen can
go to your chickens. So for me, I put all
the bruised bits and the bits of
coddling moth damage onto the compost heap.
And then all the pieces that are cut
up are going into a pan with water and
lemon juice in it to stop these discoloring,
and in little while I'll
make these into an applesauce and stewed
apples for crumbles. So I'm just going to
whizz through all of the apples so we
have plenty of cores to use.
If you prefer
your stewed apples and your apple sauce
without apple peel, then you can peel
your apples and all the peelings can go in.
I like to leave the skins on because I
think they add extra flavor and
certainly color and definitely some fiber.
When you've got your container with your
apple cores and peelings and any other
scrap bits that you've got from your
apples. So some of these are bits that
we're too small for my cooking
purposes for this particular project, so
they get those. You need to put them into
a container. Because I process an awful
lot of apples at this time of year I'll
be making these in the buckets, but
for now I've got a jar to show you how
to do it. So pop your scraps into your
jar until about 3/4 filled.
In a jug measure out some warm water and
put one tablespoon of sugar for every
cup of water. Stir the sugar in until it
dissolves and then pour it over your
apples.
Cover the jar loosely with a piece
of muslin cloth or a fabric scrap or
even a coffee filter would work. And hold
it on with an elastic band and then put
it into a warm dark place for about two
to three weeks. I've put mine in my
disused oven and there's no mistake, it
won't get put on because that oven
actually doesn't work, but it's warm and
it's dark so that's a good place for it
to sit. Now, you may want to check on it
every few days because it may get a
scum on the top of it, which you can
choose to remove or not, that's up to you,
I don't. I leave it as it is and after
two to three weeks it should have a
slightly sweet vinegary smell. And at
that point you can remove all the apple
scraps from the jar, put the covering back
on and leave it for another at least
three or four weeks.
As I said, I make my apple cider vinegar
in large containers, I use a 5 gallon
plastic drum and use quite a large piece
of material over the top, which I hold on
with baling twine because we don't
have elastic bands big enoug. But I
want to show you the color of the apple
cider vinegar I made last year.
Isn't that nice? Doesn't that look good? It smells
fantastic! And I store it in these big
containers and I use it throughout the year.
Now you may find that your vinegar
has grown its own life form. It looks
like a sort of gelatinous slimy thing.
This is, in fact, a very good thing,
this is effectively a 'mother' and you can
use this in your next batch of apple
cider vinegar to speed up the whole process.
So when I'll make mine in the
bucket today, I will be adding this in
with a little bit of the vinegar from
last year into that water. And that
should get it turning into vinegar even faster.
Well I hope you found that useful
and if you do decide to make some
vinegar, please do come back and leave a
comment and let me know that you've
given it a go. That's it for me today, I
need to get the rest of these apples
cores and peelings and all the rest of
the apples prepared.
And so wherever you are in the world and whatever you've got
planned for today I hope it's a good one,
and I also hope you'll join me again
tomorrow!
you