Autumn fun – press your own APPLE JUICE
A fun event is to pick and press. If you don’t have an apple tree – no worries – there are several apple orchards where you can pick your own.
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By Bente D. Knudsen Pictures: Stine Rosengren, Bente D. Knudsen
Growing apple trees in your garden is very common in Denmark – almost all old gardens boast several, but even in modern gardens, growing them is becoming popular again.
During the autumn season, they delight their owners with fresh home-grown produce.
Sometimes they produce more than you can eat and pressing them into apple juice is a great way to deal with a surplus.
If you have children, picking the apples and taking them to the juice press is a fun way to spend a weekend during the autumn, as children in particular seem to love watching the juice seeping out of the press.
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Apple juice (also called sweet cider) is a refreshing healthy drink. In Denmark the home pressed apple juice often goes under the name æblemost.
You will find that the freshly-pressed apple juice from home-grown apples has an intensity of flavour that is a far-cry from the one you can buy at your local supermarket, mainly because it is unpasteurised and unfiltered.
People who do not normally like apple juice will find the flavour and sheer freshness of home-pressed apple juice a revelation.
The colours can vary considerably depending on the varieties you have been pressing, from dark brown to pale yellow.
Pink or red-fleshed apples make particularly attractive juice.
Home-pressed juice can be drunk immediately, or kept in the fridge in a closed bottle or container for five to six days.
If you find that you cannot drink or give away all of your fresh juice, you can also pasteurise it and make it keep for the whole winter, or even easier freeze it, an easy solution if you have a big enough freezer.
If you don’t have a garden with an apple tree but would like to pick your own fresh apples we have put in a few tips for places to go but at the site of plukselv frugt a map of Denmark with links to other places can be found.
Danish only but the map is easy to read and when clicking on a icon the farm’s information appears.
Find the link here.
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Buying an apple press may not be on your next shopping list! Although you will find them on sale in the DIY’s during the autumn season.
No apples at home? On Zealand you can for instance pick apples at Kildebrønde Frugtplantage near Greve.
Find them at Kildebrønde Landevej 41, 2670 Greve. Phone: 4361 0910. More information at www.kildebronde-frugt.dk.
Taking your car is not a problem as they have plenty of parking space, or take the S-train to Høje Taastrup station, change to bus 120 and get off at the bus stop Søndergaard in Kildebrønde.
You can pick apples every weekend until there are no more apples on their trees! Feel free to call them and ask, they speak English too.
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At Kræmmergård in Bækmarksbro (23 km from Holstebro/West Jutland) they will press your apples for you, bring a minimum of 30 kg for fresh or frozen juice and 50 kg if you want it pasteurised.
Contact them to make an appointment or for information as their opening hours are not online.
Location: Dorthe & Lars, Kræmmergårdvej 50 7660 Bækmarksbro. Phone: 9788 1034 or mobile: 2759 1577. More information at www.kræmmergård.dk
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On Funen, the local juicery Orskov Foods propose the same trade off.
From 11 September 2023 you can exchange your apples for freshly pressed juice; 10 kg apples are exchanged for 1 litre of juice.
Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 17:00 at Orskov Foods (formerly Ørbæk Most), Odensevej 16, 5853 Ørbæk. More information at: https://oerbaekmosteri.dk/
