Karen Wils photo Apples are put through the press.

ESCANABA — An apple cider day is a frosty October memory worth savoring.

Pressing cold crisp apples into juice has been a family tradition with us for many years.

A lot of work goes into transforming fresh apples into tasty sweet cider. The whole process, from tree to the jug, can be a photo fun experience.

The extended Rose family typically gathers on Washington Island, Wis. for our annual cider making fest. My oldest brother Jim and his wife and family live on the Island so it was a perfect time to visit.

Washington Island, located in Lake Michigan right off of the Door County Peninsula, is beautiful year round, but in the fall it is spectacular.

People flock from all around to visit the island in the autumn color season and harvest season.

And for good reasons. The Island is a nice mix of hardwoods. Scarlet maples and golden birches line the country lanes. Cool green conifers thrive there, too, as well as countless old apple orchards.

Our family’s cider making endeavors started early in the morning. Boots, gloves, flannel shirts and warm hoodies — we’d head out to one of the many neighboring apple trees.

The adults picked and plucked apples and shook the trees so that the kids could scoop up the ones that fell.

In the course of the morning, we’d harvest apples from about a dozen trees, accumulating a nice variety of golden, green, pink and red apples.

We’d empty our crates into the backs of trucks. Then it was off to Jim’s house for an apple-squeezing good time. After many hands sorted and rinsed the apples, they were one by one fed through the electric grinder. The grinder and apple press were fashioned by my dad and a few uncles.

The freshly ground apple mush was then ladled into the basket, made out of wooden lats. Once the cylinder was full, a disc was set in place and hand cranking began. At first it was easy to screw the squeezings down. Then as the apples compacted, turning the crank required a lot of elbow grease.

As the pressure increased on the squeezings, the juice began to trickle out of the lats and into grooves on the base. Amber-colored cider slowly funneled into a jug below.

After so many batches the press would accumulate a sweet layer of white apple “foam.” Tiny tots and teenagers couldn’t resist dipping their fingers into the tasty foam.

Back in the olden days we used to make 50 gallons or more of apple cider to be shared among the families.

We always had great meals on Washington Island, thanks to my sister-in-law. Fresh, healthy apple cider was served with most meals.

After a day of apple gathering, we always had plenty of apples for eating, pie making and apple sauce making. There always was a few scrubby apples for the deer.

If you have apples hanging in your backyard, maybe this is the year that you can call your crew together and have an apple cider squeezing party.

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Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.