History comes alive, complete with old-timey cider

FALLS VILLAGE — Ben Harmon added a few more apples and started cranking the cider press on Saturday, during the Falls Village-Canaan Historical Society’s Living History event at the Depot.

Harmon said he had helped a friend move to Boston the day before and didn’t return until late. “So it was a midnight apple gathering. It felt authentic.�

Inside the Depot building, Jean Bronson and Jenny Law were busy at a loom and spinning wheel, respectively. Law invited visitors to examine the raw wool in a pile on the floor.

“It smells like sheep,� someone commented.

“And lanolin,� said Law.

Also on display at the show: stonecutting, woodworking, old-fashioned food and drink, a muzzle-loading gun and blacksmithing.

Harmon explained what he was doing as he squeezed out cider. The press was his father’s, he said. He rebuilt the wooden bucket and refashioned the hand crank.

“My best guess, based on the markings, is that it’s from the mid-1800s.�

Harmon said the first year he tried out the press, he wound up with “30 gallons of apple cider vinegar — by accident.

“The next year we got 19 gallons of hard cider� — an alcoholic drink that includes raisins, sugar and champagne yeast.

The mixture takes about a month to ferment and “tastes like a sweet white wine.� The longer it’s left alone, the better it gets, he added.

But the raw cider produced on the spot is certainly potable, if murky. “It’ll clear up,� said Harmon, pouring a glass.

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