Ali Beatty will spend Saturday afternoon crushing apples to produce one of nature's coolest, most refreshing drinks as part of Cider Saturday at the New Canaan Nature Center. The cider-making event is one the reasons why Beatty, in her second year as an environmental educator at the nature center, wanted to work there.
"I think it tastes incredible. It's far better than anything you can buy in the store, and picking apples is tons of fun," Beatty said. "It's like a first taste of fall."
She loves the taste of fresh apple cider as much as she loves apple butter, a staple of her childhood growing up near an apple orchard in Williamsport, Pa.
During the cider festival, Beatty and other nature center staffers will show visitors a traditional apple crusher as well as a more modern machine that makes the beverage. The nature center has been making cider onsite for more than two decades. It will turn about 20 bushels of apples into cider this fall.
Beatty said children visiting last year's cider event loved putting their apples into the mechanical press. "It's very noisy," she said. "I like the mechanical press because it allows you to make a lot at a time."
Visitors will also pick and bake apples over a fire pit, churn butter, roast corncobs and sample heirloom apples. Visitors can create harvest-themed crafts, go on a pumpkin scavenger hunt and learn how to fire apples from an apple slingshot.
Festivities are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $5 for nature center families and $10 for nonmembers. For more information, call (203) 966-9577, Ext. 20, or visit its website.
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