Pressing Apples Matters

Published October 20, 2012

By Rachelle Chinnery

In the olden days folks got excited when the carnival came to town. Today, in the Co-op parking lot, it might as well have been a carnival, what with all the buzz and excitement. A mobile fruit pressing operation had set up shop and was processing all the apples and pears people had stacked in pick up trucks and cars. There were crates, barrels, bags and cardboard boxes filled with fall fruit waiting to be made into juice.

According to their website, the Comox Valley company Pressing Matter Mobile Juicer can process 1,760 pounds of apples into about 500 litres of pasteurized juice which is then hot-filled into an air-tight packaging system that looks just like boxed wine – a plastic bag inside a dispensing box. People were walking away with stacks of processed juice that would keep for up to a year if unopened.

One of the most distressing sights here on Hornby in the fall is how many fruit trees sit unharvested or with fruit all over the ground, going to waste. Here’s hoping with this new mobile presser that more people will consider having their apples converted to juice.