The Community Cider Press: A Maine Fall Staple

The sensations of fall induce nostalgia greater than every other season. The crackling of leaves underfoot, the panoply of good cover colours, the crisp air, the hearty meals, the rising assortment of Halloween decorations. Every of those sights, sounds, smells, and tastes transports me to a reminiscence of time properly spent with others. The enjoyment surrounding the bounty of harvest season harkens again to time immemorial and is mirrored within the pure cycles round us as life provides a ultimate hoorah in preparation for winter dormancy. 

The crunch of a freshly picked apple and the candy tang of pressed apple cider could high my checklist of fall sensations. The neighborhood cider press was a staple of my childhood and one thing that I’ve been lacking in my grownup years. To me, urgent cider epitomizes the spirit of the autumn season; accumulating apples, regardless of the bruises and imperfections, and including your bounty to the remaining with a view to present everybody with a swig of sweetness that can energy us by means of colder, darker days. 

I prolong my due to the Mount Pleasure Orchard on the East Finish in Portland for offering a possibility for me to revisit the enjoyment of the neighborhood cider press final weekend. Dozens of family and friends gathered on the public neighborhood orchard from in and round Portland to rejoice the nearing-end of the apple season and to be taught extra in regards to the volunteer-led orchard. 

An underappreciated gem of Portland, Mount Pleasure Orchard has been offering free entry to 100 fruit bushes and an assortment of different produce to space residents for greater than 15 years. Extremely, the operation is fully volunteer-run, with native of us of all expertise ranges contributing to the area throughout month-to-month work events and different common occasions. 

Situated on the sloped terrain of Munjoy Hill between Washington Avenue and North Avenue, the orchard offers phenomenal views of Portland’s downtown and Again Cove with out being far faraway from the town. On the high of the hill, a neighborhood backyard takes benefit of the flat panorama to assist vegetable and flower crops, whereas the slope itself is dotted with fruit bushes that may extra simply thrive in well-drained soil. The underside of the hill includes a raspberry thicket and extra plots of neighborhood vegetable gardens that benefit from the runoff from the hillside. 

The orchard tour offered by the educated of us at The Resilience Hub gave me a greater appreciation for the flexibility of a neighborhood to take care of shared land. The orchard is a thriving multi-cultural area with out a distinct possession construction, offering produce and an academic gathering area for all who want to take part. The operation depends on the collective data of the neighborhood fairly than a definite plan carried out by a person, which lends to engagement and shared studying throughout a variety of individuals. Even higher, the limitations to entry are basically non-existent: the orchard is free, no experience is required to hitch the work events, and there aren’t any gates or fences to exclude folks at any time.  

These inclusive rules have been on full show through the cider press. Folks of all ages and backgrounds participated in washing, reducing, and urgent apples, and cider was shared with all who attended. I mingled with a number of members of the Pure Assets Council of Maine and made new connections with neighbors I didn’t know I had. I even discovered a few host of latest apple varieties I had by no means heard of (who knew we’ve a Maine selection referred to as I-95??).  

Our mannequin of land growth and privatization has left only a few agricultural commons accessible to neighborhood members. Greater than 90 % of land in Maine is privately owned, which doesn’t depart a variety of area for neighborhood to develop, be taught, and thrive. A number of long-time members instructed me that the commonest suggestions they get from locals is: “Oh, I can simply go in there any time? I had no thought!” Most Individuals have been educated to not understand of land as theirs to make use of and luxuriate in in the event that they haven’t paid for it, and it’s refreshing to see Mount Pleasure Orchard breaking that mould with a standing open invitation. 

I look ahead to going to future work events at Mount Pleasure Orchard and hope to see state and municipal funding all through Maine into comparable shared studying and rising areas. 

—Josh Caldwell, NRCM Local weather & Clear Vitality Outreach Coordinator