Fresh-Pressed Cider On Tap In Mendham At Ralston Mill Demo: Pics

MENDHAM, NJ - Visitors were able to recently toast fall with a cup of freshly-pressed cider, while taking in some local history, during the Ralston Cider Mill’s yearly apple pressing event.

Attendees there could sample cider and with their own containers and for a suggested donation, bring some of it home.

With the cider mill’s historic press, about 100 bushels or 8,000 apples were fed through to create the cider at the annual pressing day on Oct. 23, the apples donated by Alstede Farms. The Farm indicated in a previous news release that on its 60 acres, it grows about 50 different types of apples during each season.

Ralston Cider Mill's Director James Malchow said more than 150 people attended the cider-pressing, with the 100 bushels of apples transformed into 200 gallons of cider.

The event was rounded out with classic and vintage cars and tractors on display.

Built in 1848, the Ralston Cider Mill is volunteer-operated, with proceeds from the cider pressing event earmarked for "educational programs and maintenance restorations" at the mill.

According to the mill’s history, it was part of a lineup of mills in the current Ralston Historic District that was operated to feed off of the North Branch of the Raritan River.

After its original operator John Nesbitt died in 1904, operations stopped, but in 1910 Thomas Laughlin relocated his Tiger Apple Jack Distillery on Bernardsville Road, to make apple jack and peach brandy at Nesbitt’s formerly-shuttered mill. Laughlin continued to create applejack during Prohibition, using a secret still within the building. The Fornaro family took over the mill between 1929 and 1938.

Follow the Ralston Cider Mill Museum for more information and upcoming events at: www.ralstoncidermill.org or on mill’s Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/RalstonCiderMill.

RELATED: Mendham's Ralston Cider Mill Hosts Pressing Event

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.