Every family has traditions. Whether you are given to nostalgia or not, there is something that brings a warm smile into the heart when you can enjoy a family tradition with those you love.  Traditions bring people together.  Traditions give common ground to the footing we stand on, something that the heart looks forward to with a tender rose of eagerness and an expectation of reliving the things once enjoyed of the past.  I love traditions.  They knit a framework together that holds the tokens and memories of former years and moments shared in a fashion that is tangible for each member to handle and hold. Some of the souls that partake of our traditions are very young.  Some, are old.  Having said that, a tradition is one of the few things that can span the generations of time.  It is something in common that those barely old enough to remember can share with those elderly who are ready to hang up their work apron.  Traditions are chain links that are strong enough to join the young and aged together in a powerfully strong connection of gold.

Traditions.

I will be posting about some of ours as we move into the close of 2020, through the string of holidays that hopefully will end a rather hard year on a pleasant note.  I hope you look forward to these posts as much as I do. Hopefully some of you will post some of your favorite family traditions in the comments section.  Please share!  I welcome hearing what makes us all tick and would love to hear stories of traditions that bring color and life to your family holidays.

For the Carr family, October brings about the special tradition of cider day.  It is both delicious and fun.  For as long as I can remember, we have been making apple cider once a year outside of my Grandma’s house on her flat cement parking lot.  It has been going on for so long, one might say that it is part of our heritage.  Let me explain.

It started out with a dream in my dad's head. When he was young, he found the remnants of an old cider press abandoned in an orchard out in back of his family’s small house.  Old and decrepit, he decided to strip the main parts off and restore them, then add them to new wood and make a working design.  I give him credit.  He was ingenious.  His design works wondrously.  We are all benefitting today from the idea he had as a boy.  We are sure glad he got the idea.

When we were kids, the process was actually quite a bit harder.  We used to go get apples for cider day by hand.  There were usually apples to be found in the fencerows or remnants of old orchard trees out and about the farmland of western Pa.  Often at my cousin’s house, we would pick them in hopes of making something tasty.  Since then, we no longer pick apples by hand, but buy them.  Sorry, it’s just much easier that way.  Through the years we have come in contact with orchards in our area that are willing to sell apples at cider price, apples that are a bit deformed or too imperfect to sell as eating apples.

They taste the same.

The last two years I haven’t been able to actively participate due to my head injury, but I love to interact with everybody and watch.  To see happy people, smiling faces, bodies running around busy like bees, joyful hearts, and cooperation among family is a precious thing.  I didn’t want to miss it.

Let me explain the process.

First, we need to start with clean ingredients.  The guys who are strong enough haul out the press start washing it up.  They pressure wash the wood and metal to clean dust free from the year sitting silent in the garage.  Some of the kids are apple washers.  They bob the apples in tubs of water trying to get any contaminants off the fruit before pressing.  Bushels of apples wait in line as the water hose sprays, excitement splashes, apples are cleaned.  Sometimes someone tries to “bob” for an apple.  Laughter usually follows.  If there are any bad spots, they can be cut out as someone in line has a knife ready. Nobody wants a rotten apple!  

When the press is all washed and drip dried, they also oil it with vegetable oil, just so the moving parts are free and easier to turn.  The actual press is turned by hand.  They give it a spin and make sure it glides freely up and down. 

Once rinsed and out of the water, the apples are then put into the cider press hopper, where they are poked into an electric belt driven chipper that chops them all up into small pieces. This allows the juice a way to exit without having to go through the tough skin of the apple.  A basket catches all the apple parts underneath, collecting them into the container that will be squeezed.  Slats fastened together hold the apples, but not the juice, and works well as the first filter.

No matter how long we have been doing this, when it comes to the actual pressing of the apples, there arises a strength challenge to participators.  The corkscrew press has a wheel at the top in which turning forces it downward.  Usually the men are in charge of the corkscrew press, but the women sometimes join in to show their power.  As the wheel is spun clockwise it gets tighter and tighter, harder and harder to turn.  We play a game of last budge, in which whoever is strong enough to turn the wheel last by hand wins.  It is always a good laugh.

When the press cannot be squeezed any more by hand, there is a winner, and then a wood fence pin comes out, and is used as leverage to squeeze even harder.  It is cranked down tight and hard until no more juice flows out. A stainless-steel lining catches all the cider, funnels it into a waiting bowl resting underneath.  Another person is in charge of watching how full it is getting, and when ready, switches it with another to keep the flow of cider steady and seamless.

Then we strain or filter the juice through a cheesecloth or an old cotton tshirt.  You have to use an old one that has the cotton worn out of it. A new one won’t work; new fabric won’t let the juice filter through.  Sediments, pieces of peel, and cracked seeds and stems are all screened out.

Lastly, we pour it into jugs with the use of a funnel, cap it, and take it straight to a freezer to keep it fresh and free of spoilage.

Call us crazy, but we call this fun.

Yes, it is work.  It takes a lot of effort and energy to produce even a small amount of cider.  But each and every person present is there on their own free will.  They want to do it.  They enjoy participating.  They don’t mind the work.  They are involved in a family project, a tradition, something they may have traveled far and made great effort to attend, something that requires all their combined efforts to pull off.  Pressing cider can’t be done by yourself.  It takes a village.  It reminds me of the way the Bible describes the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

So now I get to the point of my blog.  Please hear me out.

This year I couldn’t participate, but still enjoyed watching.  I got to enjoy all the smiles, the laughter, the jokes, the strength contest, the social aspect, and even the neighbors and relatives that stopped by to throw in a helping hand.  Guess what? They all had a vital part in the cider production.

There were washers, chippers, inspectors, crankers, pourers, collectors, strainers, and juggers.  

So, the question is, if you took one of those jobs away, how much product would be produced?

Let’s suppose that there were no apple washers.  How clean would the juice be?  If there were washers but no chippers, how could the juice leave the apples when pressed? Say we had washers and chippers but no juggers.  How could we drink the cider for Thanksgiving when we have long put the press away?

I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.

1 Corinthians 12:14-20

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

You, as an individual, are tremendously special.  Period. There is something you do in this world that nobody else does quite like you do.  You are designed by God as an instrumental part to his plan and purpose, and he has put you in a situation that he is using you in ways nobody else can compare.  Some of you are already aware of your gifts, talents, and abilities, and are using them to the fullest.  Some of you don’t have a clue what that means and are searching for your niche.  

In my instance, I feel like I have been commissioned by God to write.  Some people, like myself, like to write.  But if everybody God made decided to write, would the rest of the body of Christ be able to function?  It would be like trying to make apple cider and the only people who showed up to help were those who wanted to wash apples.

It takes engineers. It takes artists.  It takes people minded in finances.  It takes public speakers.  It takes people rooted in organization (something I am extremely poor in lol). To have a functioning body, it takes a few people to do each part and motion, each step in the working and making of getting something accomplished.  The problem is, we have heard this over and over and yet we don’t believe it.  Everybody thinks that if they aren’t a pastor, they aren’t usable by God.  

Let me ask you this question.  If you walked into a church, and you were an unbeliever, and the place looked like a pigsty, trash all over, dirty floors, bathrooms that were despicable, would you be likely to sit down and give God a chance?  Would you be able to look past the uncleanliness of the building to see the message that is proclaimed there?

Probably not.

Yet why do we feel like some parts of the body are more important than others?  Why do we feel that we can’t contribute because we aren’t one of the parts that everybody notices?  Don’t we see that it takes a village?  Don’t we see that it takes a whole and functioning body to be effective in our work as a church?  What if everybody was a pastor but nobody enjoyed cleanliness and keeping everything straight and neat?  We wouldn’t get very far.

1 Corinthians 12:21-26

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Can the chippers say to the juggers I don’t need you and still expect to get a taste of cider this winter?  Nope. Can the washers say to the squeezers that we don’t need you and expect to extract any juice?  Absolutely not.

My challenge for you today is simple.  It doesn’t take that much effort to see where you fit in God’s puzzle of the body of Christ. Don’t make it complicated; don’t make it harder than it needs to be.  Nobody shows up on cider day and wonders what they can do.  They just do it.  They fall into a job that they feel comfy with.  They fall into what they are suited for.  

The same goes for you. 

Today, I want you to take a look in the mirror.  Look at yourself.  What do you have to contribute to God’s kingdom?  What are you skilled at?  What do you enjoy doing?  God makes us the way we are for a reason.  If you are skilled in finances, do you really think God would expect you to be an interior decorator?  If you enjoy being a smile to those bound to a hospital and like cheering people up, do you really think God would expect you to be the person who parks cars or the person who bakes cookies at home behind the scenes to pass out to the homeless? We often make things harder than they are.  Take a look at yourself.  Ask yourself what you enjoy, what you like, what your interests are, and what you are good at.  Whatever that is, it is a precious thing.  Take note.  

Then do it.

Time is running out. We have an urgent need for the sweet taste of a finished jug of cider.  Jump in the assembly line.  Roll your sleeves up and get dirty doing something productive.  The body needs you.  The unsaved need you.  It’s time to stop sitting on the sidelines and be a part of God’s bigger picture. Be part of God’s cider jugging company.

Then, ahhhhh.  It will be so sweet and delicious.

By Chuck Carr