Windfalls deserve better than the compost heap

By late September, most apple trees in a decent year have dumped more fruit on the lawn than anyone can reasonably eat. The windfalls are bruised, wasp-nibbled and flecked with scab, so they get raked up and forgotten. That is a shame, because a modest little basket press will turn a barrowload of that fruit into fresh cloudy apple juice that tastes nothing like the supermarket version — and it will pay for itself inside a single season.

The catch is sorting. You are not making juice from rubbish; you are making juice from sound fruit that happens to look scruffy. Discard anything genuinely rotten, mouldy, or smelling of cider vinegar, and cut out bruised or brown patches with a generous margin around them. A little scab or a bit of codling moth damage is fine once trimmed. If you have any doubt about a fruit, leave it out. Mouldy apples can carry patulin, which is not something you want in a glass of breakfast juice.

The kit that does the job

You do not need much, and a good setup takes up no more shed space than a couple of buckets.

• A scratter — a hand-cranked apple mill that chops fruit into a coarse pulp called pomace. A food processor works for small batches, but it tends to make a purée that presses badly, so pulse rather than blitz.
• A press — a 6 to 9 litre basket press is the sweet spot for a domestic garden. Big enough to be worth the washing up, small enough to store on a shelf.
• Pressing cloths or a strong bag — coarse muslin squares or a purpose-made nylon pressing bag.
• A food-grade bucket, a jug, and a clean plastic funnel.
• Bottles — swing-top glass, or sturdy plastic bottles with screw caps if you intend to freeze. Leave 3cm of headspace for expansion.
• Something to stop browning — a squeeze of lemon juice, or a pinch of ascorbic acid stirred through the pomace.

Scratting and getting the blend right

Wash the fruit, then trim and halve it. You do not need to peel or core — pips and core add body, though a heavy load of pips can taste faintly bitter, so quarter larger apples and flick out the seed clusters if you are feeling thorough.

Now feed everything through the scratter into a bucket, working in batches so the pomace does not sit around and oxidise. This is the moment to think about flavour. Pure Bramley juice is bracing to the point of sourness; pure dessert apple juice is pleasant but a bit flat. A rough rule that works well is two parts eaters to one part cookers, with a handful of crab apples thrown in for tannin and astringency. Russets and old dual-purpose varieties make the most interesting juice of all, so if you have a Discovery, a Worcester Pearmain or a Ribston Pippin, use it.

Add the lemon juice or ascorbic acid as you go. It will not stop the juice browning completely, but it keeps it a tawny gold rather than a dull brown.

Building the press and letting gravity work

Line the basket with your cloth and fill it with pomace, folding the cloth over the top to make a neat parcel. If your press uses stacked cheeses, build each layer no more than 5cm deep and alternate cloth and pressing plate. Do not overfill — a press that is packed too tight gives poorer yield than one that is loaded sensibly.

Then press slowly. Wind the screw down steadily, pause to let the juice run, and wind again. Rushing it forces pulp through the cloth and clouds the juice, and it does not extract any more liquid. A clean 10kg of prepared fruit should give you somewhere between 5 and 6 litres of juice. Let the juice stand for an hour or two, then pour off the clear liquid from any sediment that settles — this makes a noticeably better drink.

Pasteurising, freezing, or drinking it fresh

Fresh, unpasteurised juice is the best of the lot, but it is a short-lived pleasure. Keep it in the fridge and drink it within three to five days; after that, wild yeasts will start turning it into something altogether more alcoholic.

For anything longer, you have two sensible options:

• Freezing — the easiest route. Fill plastic bottles, leave headspace, and freeze. It keeps well for a year and tastes almost as good as fresh when thawed.
• Pasteurising — heat the juice gently in a large pan to 71°C, hold it there for 20 to 30 minutes without letting it boil, then pour into sterilised bottles and cap immediately. Boiling ruins the flavour and sets a haze you cannot shift.

Clean up straight away

Leave the pulp to dry on the press and you will regret it — apple residue sets like concrete. Rinse everything in cold water before it dries, then wash the press, bucket and cloths in hot soapy water, and sterilise the parts that touched juice. Boil-wash the cloths, or soak them in a sterilising solution of the sort home brewers use, and dry them thoroughly in the sun or a hot cupboard before storing.

Oil the screw threads lightly at the end of the season, store the press somewhere dry, and it will serve you for decades. There is something quietly satisfying about turning a heap of rejected fruit into rows of golden bottles on a shelf — and once you have tasted your own juice, the compost heap will never get a look in again.