clengman
Active Member
I just finished grinding and pressing my first batch of apples from trees I have growing in my backyard. I used a kitchenaid food grinder/sausage stuffer attachment to grind the apples and pressed them with a homemade press. I got through about a bushel of apples and got a yield of about 3.5 gallons of juice. I'm happy with that for this year, but the kitchenaid is just not going to cut it if I want to scale up in the future.
I'm a little bit handy and have thought about a building a handcrank scatter, but after factoring in the cost of some of the parts (a flywheel, stainless axle and bearings) and the time involved building it I decided I would be better off buying something.
Then I see mention of using garden shredder/chippers for apple grinding and I've seen some small shredders that sell for similar prices as a hand-powered grinder, and it looks like that's definitely the way to go.
I'm wondering which brands/models anyone here has tried. I actually have an electric chipper/shredder that I use at home and I'm sure anything similar would do a fine job of pulping apples. I thought one like this would probably be fine if I fit a hopper to it and you can't really beat the price.
What I'm most concerned about though, are things like seals around the axle to prevent juice getting into the motor, use of mild-steel parts that might corrode in the presence of the acidic juice or impart a metallic taste to the juice, ease of cleaning and sanitization, etc. If anyone has used something like this and has any information to share I'd certainly appreciate it. Thanks!
Carl
I'm a little bit handy and have thought about a building a handcrank scatter, but after factoring in the cost of some of the parts (a flywheel, stainless axle and bearings) and the time involved building it I decided I would be better off buying something.
Then I see mention of using garden shredder/chippers for apple grinding and I've seen some small shredders that sell for similar prices as a hand-powered grinder, and it looks like that's definitely the way to go.
I'm wondering which brands/models anyone here has tried. I actually have an electric chipper/shredder that I use at home and I'm sure anything similar would do a fine job of pulping apples. I thought one like this would probably be fine if I fit a hopper to it and you can't really beat the price.
What I'm most concerned about though, are things like seals around the axle to prevent juice getting into the motor, use of mild-steel parts that might corrode in the presence of the acidic juice or impart a metallic taste to the juice, ease of cleaning and sanitization, etc. If anyone has used something like this and has any information to share I'd certainly appreciate it. Thanks!
Carl