We visited the New Hampshire Farm Museum recently for their annual harvest festival. There are a few days of the year when they really have some fun things to do, and this day was apple cider pressing. We haven't found a good place to press our own apple cider since we lived in Washington, so this was especially fun.
To make cider to old fashioned way, you take some apples...
...and load them into the chopper hopper....
...and turn the crank to chop up the apples in preparation for pressing.
Finally, turn the screw to compress the apples. The bucket at the bottom catches the juice. We got to drink what we pressed. Yummy!
For those who were too little to press apples, there was always the family cow to milk. It was filled with water, and the young ones spent lots of time practicing.
The kids pumped and carried water...
...and washed dishcloths with it, using homemade soap, a washboard and a roller. They've never had so much fun doing laundry.
Making Stone Soup.
Catherine winning the no-hands pie-eating contest! Woo hoo!
Anna played with the chickens with a licked hard candy. Nothing bad could happen, right? (Charlie Brown in the pile of leaves with the wet sucker comes to mind) Happily, all was well.
Now, you may be wondering, "Where was the youngest Gallaher child in the midst of all this fun?" As it was a bit muddy, he spent most of his time on the sidelines, enjoying the sights and sounds from the safety and cleanliness of his jog stroller. He did get out a bit, but we couldn't take photos of him because we only saw his back as he ran from one thing to the next.
Overall, everyone had a good time, even climbing the trees.
