PLAN No. 304. MAKING USE OF SURPLUS APPLES
In some sections of the country thousands of bushels of fine apples are allowed to go to waste every year, simply because there is no one to gather them and make practical use of them.
A man in eastern Ohio, where the supply of apples is largely in excess of the demand, made profitable use of this apple surplus by a new method of concentrating cider, through freezing and centrifugal motion. This method consists of first freezing the raw cider until it is solid, by placing it in shallow trays and exposing it to a freezing outdoor temperature. Then it is crushed up fine and put into a receptacle like a barrel churn, and whirled very rapidly. This throws off the juice in the form of a syrup and leaves the water in the machine as ice.
One gallon of this concentrated cider, or syrup, is as strong as five gallons of ordinary apple cider, and when put in a cool place will keep from six months to a year without fermenting. It also reduces the bulk about four-fifths, so that it can be shipped at a low transportation cost, thus increasing the profits by a large percentage.
This man gathered up several hundred bushels of the apples that were going to waste, rented a cider press, and turned out the cider in immense quantities, late in the fall when the weather was freezing cold. The concentrated product he shipped to the city and sold it at big profit, the first netting him nearly $1,000.