Central Park Hard Cider

Central Park in New York City is a green oasis in the middle of America's most densely populated city. It's also home to lots of edible wild fruits and vegetables. Most people would never think to eat something that grew wild in the middle of Manhattan, but that means there is more for me!

A few weeks ago I made some blackberry jam from wild blackberries I picked in Central Park. With the fall upon us again, the apple trees are also heavy with fruit. Central Park has a few apple trees that make some delicious apples.

Last year I collected a few hundred apples and made about 5 gallons of hard cider. Check out the picture of the hard cider from last year. The red flesh of the apple made pink hard cider! This year I wasn't as lucky and was only able to get a few dozen apples. So I decided to use 25% Central Park cider and 75% cider from the farmers market. This will actually make a higher quality cider than last year. Not because the Central Park apples are inferior, but good cider is made from a mixture of apple types. Sweet and tart apple varieties combine to make a more complex cider.

If you're making a lot of cider, you probably need a small cider mill. If you're only making a small amount, a juicer like this will do a good job. Cleaning the juicer gets tiring after a while!
The apples from Central Park have red flesh which is quite unique. There are several varieties of red fleshed apples. I believe these are "Red Devils" but I could be wrong.
When buying cider, make sure it doesn't have any sorbates or other preservatives. This will prevent the cider from fermenting. Grocery stores will probably have cider with preservatives but farmers markets will probably have cider with no preservatives. Plus it will probably be fresher and much better quality! I added the farmers market cider to the Central Park Cider pictured below. Cider is one of the few fermented beverages that are still delicious when fermented naturally. If you've ever had cider turn a little funky or blow the lid off the container, you've experienced the beginnings of natural fermentation. Wild yeasts on the skins of the fruit will ferment the cider as well as any commercial yeast.
In a week or two I will rack the cider, and after aging, will bottle in champagne bottles.