It’s cider time!
Cider is the local drink of Brittany. Many people who live in the countryside have apple trees and every year they pick their apples for the purpose of making their own cider. The apple trees are stripped in October and the apples laid out on black plastic sheets for 3 weeks or so in the open air to rot. The ‘pressoir’ is then booked for November/December – this is the mobile cider press on the back of a tractor, which presses the apples and the juice is then fed into large ‘barriques’ cider barrels, where the cider ferments. The cider is ready to drink in about 6 months time, and very good it is too! For breakfast, lunch, dinner – there is never a wrong time for the Bretons to drink cider.
Of course a beret and Breton moustache are essential for cider making;)
The older generation still have the right to produce ‘eau de vie’ – distilled cider, usually about 70% volume and a real throat burner. Traditionally added to a morning coffee (pre Sarkozy and his traffic contrôles, bien sûr!!). This right to distill used to be passed on to the children, but it is now illegal. Each cider producer had the right to produce up to 1000% per year, so around 13 litres. Another tradition that has now disappeared, although I’m sure there will be more healthy livers in Brittany as a result.
Comments
Goodness Susan, that is a very nice looking pressoir, and a great summary of one of the many attractions in Brittany.
There are still a large number of cider apple trees here at Les Blancs, although I am ashamed to say that our pigs and sheep do get the apples. We have a large old cider press in one of the outbuildings, still functional and perhaps one day I will restore it to it’s former glory.
All our neighbours still produce ‘eau de vie’ – an acquired taste, but not for me!
Bobby