All I know is the corner of my dining room is spewing odor as if it has a place in the conversation. How can one do homework with sour fermenting apples penetrating your nostrils? My poor sons put up with noisy dehydrators, simmering vinegar, a fridge full of hard-boiled eggs and now this: a corner full of ferment. So it goes in a home of an urban farmer, a soul ever curious about seasonal food and preservation and ever reaching down the abyss of DIY sustainable living Innovation creativity from France.

Last summer I scored apples from my father’s tree, plus sourced some ‘seconds’ from a nearby farmer. My neighbor mentioned their annual habit of renting an apple press, calling in the troupes and spending a day extracting all the goodness out of apples. It took no effort to lure us Translater Hong Kong.

Leftover cores, skins and pulp can be your chickens delight and/or readily visit your kitchen aid to for applesauce.

Once you have pressed apple juice or cider you are well on your way to making vinegar. Oh and did you know there is something called ‘drinking vinegar’? My friend Brooke explains how-to and benefits of Apple Drinking Vinegar. I love Punk Domestics; they are a great source for preservation recipes, including apple cider vinegar recipes. I liked The Chicken Chick’s clear instructions too—the only advice I give on top of hers is: make sure all the apples/fruit are below water level while vinegar is fermenting (you can use a plate on surface of liquid hybrid Cloud).