Hayride

There were about seventy of us last night who gathered at our house for a hayride and homemade cider and donuts. I decorated the barn with the last of our zinnias, along with popcorn, gourds and pumpkins. 

Dad read a passage of scripture before taking two wagonloads of people on a hayride. Some of the older folks stayed in the barn near the wood stove, while the rest of the group settled on straw bales for the ride down farm lanes. Dad pulled one wagon with the Ford tractor and Brian pulled the other with the 706 tractor.  

Brian worked all week cleaning the bays of the barn. Dad came home from work at noon on Friday to help with preparations. We borrowed the cider press from our neighbors, the Kindys.

Libby, Brian, Mom and Dad began washing the apples and chopping them in half before our guests arrived. Aaron and Brian pulverized the apples by running them through a wood chipper (that is only used for apples). Then the pulp was squeezed in the press to remove the juice from the pulp. We will use the biproduct, the pressed pulp, for animal feed. 

We sent our guests home with jugs of cider last night. About half of our harvest of apples remain in bushel baskets. We may make the rest of them into cider today if we have time. 

Judith joined me in the kitchen as I mixed up a triple batch of buttermilk donuts and a batch of apple fritters. Judith fried the donuts while I rolled them and cut them. We rolled the hot donut holes in cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, or glaze.