Picked apples in 17 to 20 bushel bins are brought in by fork lift and put on the bin dumper.
Apples are inspected on the sorting rolls before being sent to the washer.
Apples are transported up a hopper and dropped into a stainless steel blade mill where the apples are crushed into pomace.
The apple pomace is fed on to the belts of the press.
Tension is applied to the belts by a pneumatic cylinder which applies pressure to the pomace as it follows a serpentine path through to a series of progressively smaller rollers.
The result of the roller and belt action shows the fresh juice flowing into the collection pan.
After approximately 90% of the juice is squeezed out, the now dry pomace is removed from the press, and deposited in a spreader located outside of the building, to be recycled in the orchard.
Overall view of the blade mill, press, collection tanks and Sweco vibrating separator.
Siphon filler in the foreground is used only for unpasteurized cider sold only at the orchard.
Siphon filler and stainless steel holding tanks.
Five thousand gallon holding tanker waiting for transfer to Citrus
Systems Juice Plant- either Hopkins, MN or Madison,WI for pasteurizing
and bottling.
The tanker on the left is the permanent holding tanker. The tanker on the right is the over the road tanker being filled with cider.
