In Permaculture we talk a lot about "appropriate technology" vs. technology for technology's sake. My friend Ruthy would always say sometimes technology can be like toasting a bagel with a blowtorch.
So what can we make that is both low-tech, meaning anyone with basic skills and knowledge can build or fix it, and gives more self-determination. Since so much of our world seems out of our control even the basic necessities of heating your home, growing your food and cooking it. What happens the next time a super storm comes through knocking out power for a week or longer? Appropriate tech can both be used as back up emergency systems, ways of living in rural or remote locations, or even designed to get folks off of the grid.
The following are three systems we modeled and played around with last weekend in our
Permaculture FEAST course.
Apple Press
The other day I was walking down the alley behind my house and saw a beautiful apple tree with most of the fruit covering the ground. Even though it was a really bad fruit tree year there is still so many apples in peoples yards, not to mention orchards that have drops and go bad. Pressing apples (and other fruits like pears) is a great way to preserve the harvest and use "ugly" apples that otherwise wouldn't get sold for fresh eating. Historically in New England making cider was very common on most farms. Specific varieties were developed for juicing and many varieties have been lost (more on that in a later post).
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| Here is what the underside looks like. The garbage disposal mashes and drops the apples into the bucket |
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| Then the apple slop gets poured through a cheese cloth like filter into another bucket with wholes drilled into the side. The "press" is a car jack. |
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| the juice pours out of the bucket and into a bus pail with another whole drilled at the tip and finally flows into another 5 gallon bucket. |
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| Chopping apples and putting them down into the garbage disposal. Plywood top doubles as surface area for cutting boards and 5 gallon bucket catches apple slop. Looks like a giant batch of mashed potatoes! |
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| Heating and mulling the apple cider with a rocket stove. Mulling with reishi mushrooms, cinnamon, cloves and cardamon |
