The Rose Hill Cider Press

Several years ago I built a press based on the design of a flower or leaf press. The base was an 18x18" piece of pine with four threaded rods, attached, one in each corner. The top plate was a similar sized piece of pine but with slots cut for the metal rods rather than holes. It was set up in a very similar way to a traditional cider press: an old unpatterned tea towel was placed on the base board and a couple of jug fulls of crushed apple (liquidiser.....very slow!) placed on top. The edges of the tea towel were then folded over and the whole mass patted down to give a squarish pudding affair. A 15x15" (approx) piece of ply wood was then placed on top followed by another tea towel and more apple pulp. This was repeated to give about four layers. The top plate was then put in place and a nut placed on each of the threaded corner posts. It was then a case of gradually tightening each one with a spanner until all the juice was extracted. It was incredibly efficient. Each layer of apple could be peeled from the teatowel in one piece and was the consistency of damp cardboard.

Mark Tobin
M.J.Tobin@dl.ac.uk

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