Crazy for Pantyhose!!

(or as sam called it, panty ho's...I corrected him)

Whaddya do with a tube of 20 cent panty hose (that you initially bought to make baby headbands), a couple pounds of fresh orchard (free!) apples, a blender, and a vase?

Well the question should be what CAN'T you do with those things, but I digress...


I got a wild hair tonight after being home sick all day and pinning 5 different apple cider recipes on Pinterest. I youtubed how to make your own apple cider without an apple press because not everyone has one of those. This kinda crazy guy that I almost wrote off and wanted to stop his video caught my interest. Luckily he did. He gave me the tools and knowledge that would satisfy my apple cider craving in a jiffy (well or maybe an hour).

If you'd like to partake in the pantyhose apple cider phenomenon you've come to the right place. Now maybe this is an old tradition and has been around for many years but I'd never heard of it.
Here's the video I got the idea from:

it's a 7+ minute video but once I saw where he was going, I fast forwarded to the end :D I'm just ADD like that. I'll show you in pictures the steps I used. I apologize for the phone pictures in advance.

Gather your supplies: GOOD blender, vase...preferably your mothers favorite china :D I kidd, washed apples (note I used more than are pictured), knife, cutting board, and 20 cent knee high pantyhose. I happened to have white on hand for another project.

Core and chop yer apples...don't peel them, but cut out any bad spots. I cut them into quarters then into thirds but I didn't need too. this part goes quickly if you have a 15 year old brother who wants to help.

fill up your blender to the top and add a few inches of water. the more water you add, the farther your apples will go and the more cider you'll make, but it will also make the final product watery. But honestly now that's it's done I think I'm gonna add more water too it, it's very apple-y.

blend those suckers in your fancy blendtec or whatever blender you happen to have.

mine has a whole juice option that I used. It blends it for 50 seconds but I stopped mine with 20 seconds left because it was done.

put your pantyhose around the vase and pour half of the (white) cider into it. It will turn brown quickly because that's what apples do but it's ok.

this part is kinda nasty and I almost lost my lunch..oh wait I didn't eat lunch..oh gosh I am related to my grandmother...pull the pantyhose up and use your fingers to squish all the juice down. At this point I decided I needed a larger vessel.

It will make weird sucking noises and it will totally gross you out but, march on.

now squeeeeze all that juice out of that nylon. How is it that when one makes apple cider and abuses that poor piece of nylon that it doesn't BREAK or RIP? but as soon as I try to put them on on Sunday, there are instant holes?! Will wonders never cease? You should get quite a bit of liquid out of each squeezing, keep going until it's dry and no longer juicy.

Warning, the following image is disturbing and disgusting, the faint of heart/stomach should look away now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what the pulp of the juice looks like after squeezing....sick right? I said it looked like refried beans, sam had other options as to what it looked like...but I'll spare you. Throw that away or put it in your compost bucket. Once it's all out, rinse the hose well and wring out, flip right side out and  you're ready for batch 2. I made ALL the cider with ONE leg of panty hose so guess who still has one for baby headbands? HOLLLLA

Repeat this process until you have used up all your apples. The beauty of this is you can make as little or as much as you want without being swarmed by bees outside. Once you get a system down it goes quickly. We have an apple orchard down the road from my house that NOBODY picks so we picked a bunch the other day and I made applesauce with most of them and cider with the rest. I went back yesterday and 'gleaned' with a friend from work, we gathered A LOT more apples/pears/plums/blueberries etc...and a lot of it will be donated to the food bank. So no more rotten going to waste apples around here!!

at the end, you'll have some delicious, fresh, free, healthy apple cider that you can then drink, make into hot cider (YUM) or make into apple cider vinegar by leaving it out. You can freeze this, refrigerate it, can it, drink it, bathe in it...whatever you fancy, I won't judge. I don't know exactly how many apples we used prolly 20-30ish medium apples so we got about the same amount (or more?) than you would using an apple press!!

Now go, gather your pantyhose and apples!!

On the plus side, you'll have some lovely now tan colored knee highs to wear to church sunday :D Kiddddding!!