Well, today was D-Day for juicing all the fruit stored in the shed. Apples, pears and quinces by the boxful have been gathered over the last week or so – from our garden, Stephanie and Nat’s and donated to us by generous friends.

We hired a scratter from Brew Tas (Liverpool St Hobart) that made short work of munching up the fruit. Apparently it can process up to 800kg an hour.

Nat bought a 20 ton press and adapted this to use in conjunction with the apple press that a friend kindly gave us last year (thanks Jen and Bob). Nat (and Robert) primarily handled this piece of innovative mechanical apparatus.

Many hours later the juice was all collected and bottled off. The yield was good and we now look forward to many months of happy consuming. Incidentally, the pear juice last year we found to be a little sweet for our taste. Therefore, on a whim it was decided to combine pear and quince juice. It is really delicious – flavoursome and not too sweet.

The preserving outfits were filled twice over to preserve a lot of the juice.

Apple cider is bubbling away already, and some of the pear/quince juice is being used in an experimental cider (also merrily bubbling).

What a fun and productive day with family and friends working together to preserve so much of autumn fruit.

As an afternoon tea treat there were fruit buns, and choc chip ones as well. I’ve found a good way to develop a recipe and not forget what I actually did, is to write it down with a whiteboard marker on the stainless steel bench. I’ve included a photo of the recipe here (my bun recipe changes each year – I was quite pleased with this version).

The slow cookers came into their own, making Swiss Chicken soup (served with fresh basil pesto scrolls) for lunch, and Steak and Stout (made into a pie) for dinner, served with lots of seasonal vegetables.  Even a dessert was cooked in yet another, apple and rhubarb cobbler.

Grandchildren Jacob and Charly seemed to enjoy themselves too, running around happily in the alternating rain and sunshine. They decided that the bread oven was a good new launching pad for jumping off and rolling over and over in the grass.

Not much doubt that we are very fortunate indeed to live here in this little neck of the woods.