You can do many things with them; Eat clean, cut muesli, bake a nice cake with them and use them as corn. Or drink your delicious and fresh water. “When you drink your juice, it tastes great,” agrees Sebastian Oevermann from Höltinghausen. When apples, pears and cherries ripen in late summer and autumn, he starts making juice from his customers’ fruit in his plant. Homemade fruit juice is not only delicious, but also really healthy. Unlike many drinks from the supermarket shelf, no sugar, coloring or preservatives are added to it. How is fruit juice extracted? ProMENADE looked over Sebastian Oevermann’s shoulder as he made the move.
It swallows 20 tons of water
Summer is coming to an end and bins full of apples, pears and currants are piling up at the Oevermann family farm. “We are running in a very uncomplicated way. Customers who have another route are welcome to make an appointment and wait for their water. But many people also leave their harvest in the yard, put a note with their name on it, and then pick it up again a day or two later,” explains Hobbymoster.
“August apples are the first early apples to arrive,” he says. From 50 kilos of fruit – which corresponds to 5 large buckets – it is worth making fruit from the fruit of your garden. Höltinghauser says: “From 10 kilos of fruits, 6 to 7 liters of milk are obtained. Sebatian Oevermann arranges the fruit on the sorting table before transferring the fruit to the shed in an orderly fashion. “Fruits that are damaged or spoiled are classified because it affects the taste,” says Moster. The fruit is then washed again and finally crushed. The moss – as it’s called “mousse” – is wrapped in burlap and placed in layers between wooden beams, before everything is pressed together with 20 tonnes of pressure. A pom remains. These are the remains of skin, bark and seeds that Sebastian Oevermann puts in the field as fertilizer.
Rotten fruit doesn’t stand a chance and is lined up on the sorting table.
T. Schulte-Sass
The mesh (should) be wrapped in layers in a thick cloth before being wrapped in 20 tons.
T. Schulte-Sass
Automatic filling in foil bags.
T. Schulte-Sass
Customers carry their water in a practical 5 liter bag.
T. Schulte-Sass
The water obtained flows into a drinking water collection tank and from there it is pumped through an angle pipe into large metal containers. “The milk here is finely filtered,” explains Sebastian Oevermann. To keep the juice for at least a year, the liquid is then briefly heated to 80 degrees using a continuous flow heater before it is then bottled. Either in a 5-liter bag with an integrated cap or in bottles. “We mainly offer leaf bags in an outer carton. Then the milk can be stored in it for at least a year. After opening, it stays for about 3 months,” says the expert.
Customers pay 6 euros for a 5 liter carton. In return they get very good juice from their fruits. Of course, the taste depends on the type of fruit. “Each farm is different. Mainly apples and pears are produced, a little later in the harvest season insects are added. We can also mix them with apples or pears at the customer’s request. It also tastes good. “says Oevermann, who himself owns four hectares planted with seven different varieties of apple trees. “I’m going organic here now,” he says. Next year he’s already looking forward to the first harvest, which he wants sell it as apple juice.
The machine produces 300 liters per hour
Sebastian Oevermann started the table six years ago with the Kulturkreis Höltinghausen with a small building for its local cultural events. “Then it progressed over the years,” says the father of three. It produces 12,000 liters, then 20,000 liters, now 40,000 liters of fruit juice. A year ago he invested in a bigger machine that can produce around 300 liters per hour. “There are definitely bad harvest years,” he says. For example, if there is another late frost in the spring. “I do table work as a part-time job, it’s a lot of fun for me,” says the structural engineer. During the harvest season, he devotes himself more to the cider, his wife and parents also help – a real family business!