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October 19, 2000 - Rememberin the Cider MillGA •The Suffolk Times • October 19, 2000 Wickham's preserves the past • Remembering the Cider Mill The many pro- cesses cider must go through before you take a drink of it. Clockwise from upper left: Apples are washed and scrubbed, then ground to a pulp that falls onto the filtering blan- kets, which are folded over and made Into layers, then all pressed to squeeze the juice out. One of the advantages of going to Southold High School back in the 1930s and '40s was that the school bus would drop us off at the Cider Mill in Cutchogue on our way home. Every fall we'd look out the windows of the bus to see if the big brown blankets were hanging out to dry on their racks. That meant they were pressing apples and there was cider to be had. In those early years the Cider Mill was located where the Suffolk County National Bank now stands in the King Kullen shopping cen- Suffolk Times photo by Barbara Stouteriburgh FOCUS Mr. Bi!lard, who ran the mill, ON was always cor- dial dial and let us kids dip into the by Paul frothy brown Stouteriburgh juice that had just been pressed from the apples. With a twinkle in his eye he would warn us, "Don't drink too much or you might get a belly ache or `something else'!" It was that "some- thing else" that sooner or later caught up with us if we drank too much of the We thought little then of what made the press work. Our main objective was to get that glass of fresh - pressed cider that old Mr. Billard always offered us. The first thing I can remember as we went into the building was the noise of machines at work. There were big flat belts that were charging back and forth and a conveyor belt carrying apples to unknown places to be ground into pulp. All this cre- ated a fearsome noise that added to the memory of the day. Of course, if we did get off the bus it would leave us so we'd have to cut "cross lots" to get home. That was no problem for we often walked the farms and knew every trail and hedgerow and farm road. We were used to walking for we also had to walk over a mile each day to catch the school bus that ran only along the Main Road. It was the only route it trav- eled. Anyone who wanted to take the bus had to walk to the Main Road to get it. As progress took over our little hamlet of Cutchogue, the building that housed the old Cider Mill was trashed along with the old Billard home- stead, the black walnut trees and the grape arbors that made up this unique little section of our town. Thank goodness John Wickham had the foresight to see that this unique 1906 cider press should be saved and put to use once again. Tom Wickham told us: "I had just sold my Model A in 1962 and gone off to Southeast Asia when my brother Jack dismantle every piece of the press and reassembled it down here in one of our farm buildings. It's big and takes up a lot of space." As Barbara and I reminisced recently about the old Cider Mill, I thought it might be fun to go and revisit it and see first -hand how cider is still made right here in Cutchogue. First we'd have to stop at the stand and check with Tom to see if it would be okay for us to go back to the farm where the press is now housed. As we met up with him on a busy day he said with his usual cordial, big smile: "Of course. Why don't you go down right now. We're pressing today." And so, with that special invitation, we drove the long driveway down to the farm. When we got there we saw the truck loaded with crates of all different kinds of apples backed up to the building that housed the press. The machinery was rumbling along, which immediately brought back those memories of early days. There were two men working inside the clean, white - walled building. One was dumping the apples into a trough, the other, with a hose in one hand and a scrub brush in the other, was washing them down. From there they were dumped onto a conveyor belt that took them up above into the unknown to be eround into pulp. sight of these blankets on their racks was a sure sign that ;on had begun. This pulp then came collect our glass of cider.) When enough pulp was down through a bright spread over the blanket, the edges were folded over stainless steel chute and to make the first layer of pulp. A slotted board was fell onto a brown filter- laid on that first layer, and then they were ready to ing blanket. (These are start the process over again by placing a blanket the same familiar blan- down and filling it with pulp, and so on. kets that lured us as kids Six or seven layers of ground apples would be built when we came from up and each wrapped in its own filtering blanket. It school into the old cider would take six or seven bushels of apples to fill each mill those ears ago to layer. This, of course, is all done with continual chat- ter of machinery all about. When all six or seven of the blankets were filled with ground -up pulp, they would swing the whole machine around on a sort of trolley that would position the stack of six or seven folded blankets of pulp directly under the waiting press. Then more mysterious levers would be pushed and the spiraling gears would start to work down. Finally the press would touch the stack of piled blankets of ground apple. Slowly it would start to compress the entire mass of pulp and you could start to see the juice running out of the blankets into the trough below. This stack would probably press about 95 gal- lons of cider. After the process is complete, the whole place is washed down and the filtering blan- kets are hung out on racks in the sun. What a beauti- ful concept this was way back when it was started almost 100 years ago, and we have the Wickhams to thank for keeping'the tradition going. When the cider filled up the trough around the base of the press, a pump was started to draw the liq- uid out and pump it into a cypress -wood tank over- head, where it would later be gravity -fed into plastic jugs below. We watched as Tom's nephew Stephen got a glass and took a little from one faucet and then another and said: "Oh, yes, you always have to sam- ple it before you bottle it. And this is especially good today. The flavor is best when you use a mix of different apples." We were given a sample to try and it took me back over 60 years to the time I stood in the Old Cider Mill on the Main Road with my friends after school and drank, probably too much, of that fresh apple juice Mr. Billard let us sample. GA •The Suffolk Times • October 19, 2000 Wickham's preserves the past • Remembering =the Cider Mill.,:,..:..,M 3 The many pro- cesses cider must go through before you take a drink of it. Clockwise from upper left: Apples are washed and scrubbed, then ground to a pulp that falls onto the filtering blan- kets, which are folded over and made Into layers, then all pressed to squeeze the juice out. One of the advantages of going to Southold High School back in the 130s and '40s was that the school bus would drop us off at the Cider Mill in Cutchogue on our way home. Every fall we'd look out the windows of the bus to see if the big brown blankets were hanging out to dry on their racks. That meant they were pressing apples and there was cider to be had. In those early years the Cider Mill was located where the Suffolk County National Bank now stands in the King Kullen shopping cen- Suffolk Times photo by Barbara Stouteriburgh FOCUS Mr. Bi!lard, who ran the mill, ON was always cor- dial dial and let us kids dip into the by Paul frothy brown Stouteriburgh juice that had just been pressed from the apples. With a twinkle in his eye he would warn us, "Don't drink too much or you might get a belly ache or `something else'!" It was that "some- thing else" that sooner or later caught up with us if we drank too much of the We thought little then of what made the press work. Our main objective was to get that glass of fresh - pressed cider that old Mr. Billard always offered us. The first thing I can remember as we went into the building was the noise of machines at work. There were big flat belts that were charging back and forth and a conveyor belt carrying apples to unknown places to be ground into pulp. All this cre- ated a fearsome noise that added to the memory of the day. Of course, if we did get off the bus it would leave us so we'd have to cut "cross lots" to get home. That was no problem for we often walked the farms and knew every trail and hedgerow and farm road. We were used to walking for we also had to walk over a mile each day to catch the school bus that ran only along the Main Road. It was the only route it trav- eled. Anyone who wanted to take the bus had to walk to the Main Road to get it. As progress took over our little hamlet of Cutchogue, the building that housed the old Cider Mill was trashed along with the old Billard home- stead, the black walnut trees and the grape arbors that made up this unique little section of our town. Thank goodness John Wickham had the foresight to see that this unique 1906 cider press should be saved and put to use once again. Tom Wickham told us: "I had just sold my Model A in 1962 and gone off to Southeast Asia when my brother Jack dismantle every piece of the press and reassembled it down here in one of our farm buildings. It's big and takes up a lot of space." As Barbara and I reminisced recently about the old Cider Mill, I thought it might be fun to go and revisit it and see first -hand how cider is still made right here in Cutchogue. First we'd have to stop at the stand and check with Tom to see if it would be okay for us to go back to the farm where the press is now housed. As we met up with him on a busy day he said with his usual cordial, big smile: "Of course. Why don't you go down right now. We're pressing today." And so, with that special invitation, we drove the long driveway down to the farm. When we got there we saw the truck loaded with crates of all different kinds of apples backed up to the building that housed the press. The machinery was rumbling along, which immediately brought back those memories of early days. There were two men working inside the clean, white - walled building. One was dumping the apples into a trough, the other, with a hose in one hand and a scrub brush in the other, was washing them down. From there they were dumped onto a conveyor belt that took them up above into the unknown to be eround into pulp. sight of these blankets on their racks was a sure sign that ;on had begun. This pulp then came collect our glass of cider.) When enough pulp was down through a bright spread over the blanket, the edges were folded over stainless steel chute and to make the first layer of pulp. A slotted board was fell onto a brown filter- laid on that first layer, and then they were ready to ing blanket. (These are start the process over again by placing a blanket the same familiar blan- down and filling it with pulp, and so on. kets that lured us as kids Six or seven layers of ground apples would be built when we came from up and each wrapped in its own filtering blanket. It school into the old cider would take six or seven bushels of apples to fill each mill those ears ago to layer. This, of course, is all done with continual chat- ter of machinery all about. When all six or seven of the blankets were filled with ground -up pulp, they would swing the whole machine around on a sort of trolley that would position the stack of six or seven folded blankets of pulp directly under the waiting press. Then more mysterious levers would be pushed and the spiraling gears would start to work down. Finally the press would touch the stack of piled blankets of ground apple. Slowly it would start to compress the entire mass of pulp and you could start to see the juice running out of the blankets into the trough below. This stack would probably press about 95 gal- lons of cider. After the process is complete, the whole place is washed down and the filtering blan- kets are hung out on racks in the sun. What a beauti- ful concept this was way back when it was started almost 100 years ago, and we have the Wickhams to thank for keeping'the tradition going. When the cider filled up the trough around the base of the press, a pump was started to draw the liq- uid out and pump it into a cypress -wood tank over- head, where it would later be gravity -fed into plastic jugs below. We watched as Tom's nephew Stephen got a glass and took a little from one faucet and then another and said: "Oh, yes, you always have to sam- ple it before you bottle it. And this is especially good today. The flavor is best when you use a mix of different apples." We were given a sample to try and it took me back over 60 years to the time I stood in the Old Cider Mill on the Main Road with my friends after school and drank, probably too much, of that fresh apple juice Mr. Billard let us sample. GA •The Suffolk Times • October 19, 2000 Wickham's preserves the past • Remembering =the Cider Mill.,:,..:..,M 3 The many pro- cesses cider must go through before you take a drink of it. Clockwise from upper left: Apples are washed and scrubbed, then ground to a pulp that falls onto the filtering blan- kets, which are folded over and made Into layers, then all pressed to squeeze the juice out. One of the advantages of going to Southold High School back in the 130s and '40s was that the school bus would drop us off at the Cider Mill in Cutchogue on our way home. Every fall we'd look out the windows of the bus to see if the big brown blankets were hanging out to dry on their racks. That meant they were pressing apples and there was cider to be had. In those early years the Cider Mill was located where the Suffolk County National Bank now stands in the King Kullen shopping cen- Suffolk Times photo by Barbara Stouteriburgh FOCUS Mr. Bi!lard, who ran the mill, ON was always cor- dial dial and let us kids dip into the by Paul frothy brown Stouteriburgh juice that had just been pressed from the apples. With a twinkle in his eye he would warn us, "Don't drink too much or you might get a belly ache or `something else'!" It was that "some- thing else" that sooner or later caught up with us if we drank too much of the We thought little then of what made the press work. Our main objective was to get that glass of fresh - pressed cider that old Mr. Billard always offered us. The first thing I can remember as we went into the building was the noise of machines at work. There were big flat belts that were charging back and forth and a conveyor belt carrying apples to unknown places to be ground into pulp. All this cre- ated a fearsome noise that added to the memory of the day. Of course, if we did get off the bus it would leave us so we'd have to cut "cross lots" to get home. That was no problem for we often walked the farms and knew every trail and hedgerow and farm road. We were used to walking for we also had to walk over a mile each day to catch the school bus that ran only along the Main Road. It was the only route it trav- eled. Anyone who wanted to take the bus had to walk to the Main Road to get it. As progress took over our little hamlet of Cutchogue, the building that housed the old Cider Mill was trashed along with the old Billard home- stead, the black walnut trees and the grape arbors that made up this unique little section of our town. Thank goodness John Wickham had the foresight to see that this unique 1906 cider press should be saved and put to use once again. Tom Wickham told us: "I had just sold my Model A in 1962 and gone off to Southeast Asia when my brother Jack dismantle every piece of the press and reassembled it down here in one of our farm buildings. It's big and takes up a lot of space." As Barbara and I reminisced recently about the old Cider Mill, I thought it might be fun to go and revisit it and see first -hand how cider is still made right here in Cutchogue. First we'd have to stop at the stand and check with Tom to see if it would be okay for us to go back to the farm where the press is now housed. As we met up with him on a busy day he said with his usual cordial, big smile: "Of course. Why don't you go down right now. We're pressing today." And so, with that special invitation, we drove the long driveway down to the farm. When we got there we saw the truck loaded with crates of all different kinds of apples backed up to the building that housed the press. The machinery was rumbling along, which immediately brought back those memories of early days. There were two men working inside the clean, white - walled building. One was dumping the apples into a trough, the other, with a hose in one hand and a scrub brush in the other, was washing them down. From there they were dumped onto a conveyor belt that took them up above into the unknown to be eround into pulp. sight of these blankets on their racks was a sure sign that ;on had begun. This pulp then came collect our glass of cider.) When enough pulp was down through a bright spread over the blanket, the edges were folded over stainless steel chute and to make the first layer of pulp. A slotted board was fell onto a brown filter- laid on that first layer, and then they were ready to ing blanket. (These are start the process over again by placing a blanket the same familiar blan- down and filling it with pulp, and so on. kets that lured us as kids Six or seven layers of ground apples would be built when we came from up and each wrapped in its own filtering blanket. It school into the old cider would take six or seven bushels of apples to fill each mill those ears ago to layer. This, of course, is all done with continual chat- ter of machinery all about. When all six or seven of the blankets were filled with ground -up pulp, they would swing the whole machine around on a sort of trolley that would position the stack of six or seven folded blankets of pulp directly under the waiting press. Then more mysterious levers would be pushed and the spiraling gears would start to work down. Finally the press would touch the stack of piled blankets of ground apple. Slowly it would start to compress the entire mass of pulp and you could start to see the juice running out of the blankets into the trough below. This stack would probably press about 95 gal- lons of cider. After the process is complete, the whole place is washed down and the filtering blan- kets are hung out on racks in the sun. What a beauti- ful concept this was way back when it was started almost 100 years ago, and we have the Wickhams to thank for keeping'the tradition going. When the cider filled up the trough around the base of the press, a pump was started to draw the liq- uid out and pump it into a cypress -wood tank over- head, where it would later be gravity -fed into plastic jugs below. We watched as Tom's nephew Stephen got a glass and took a little from one faucet and then another and said: "Oh, yes, you always have to sam- ple it before you bottle it. And this is especially good today. The flavor is best when you use a mix of different apples." We were given a sample to try and it took me back over 60 years to the time I stood in the Old Cider Mill on the Main Road with my friends after school and drank, probably too much, of that fresh apple juice Mr. Billard let us sample.