North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Don Yellman <dyellman@earthlink.net>]

Del:

1.  I built my little garbage disposal apple grinder in the early 90's, 
and have been using it ever since.  It works very, very well.  It has 
always puzzled me why more people don't try it.  I have posted a fair 
number of messages on the garbage grinder over the past few years, and 
still see people looking for a fast, efficient way to grind apples. 
That way is not a toothed grinder a la Happy Valley's "apple eater", 
which should be called the apple chunker.  The household garbage 
disposal is a miniature hammermill, which produces an apple slurry with 
the juice cells broken up.  The effect of a hammermill cannot be 
duplicated by teeth, screws, or even knives.  And you can walk in to any 
Home Depot or Lowes, select your grinder off-the-shelf, build a small 
table with simple tools, and be in the apple grinding business in an hour.

2.  Mark has identified the two problems with the garbage grinder, which 
are its tendency to overheat under continuous usage, and the necessity 
of cutting apples in half or even quarters to get them in the throat of 
the unit.  Mark's solution of using two grinders in parallel is a good 
one, but I believe using a better quality (and higher priced) disposal 
is another.  Because of the environment in which they normally function, 
garbage disposal motors are sealed units.  They are not naturally 
self-cooling.  But a small motor will overheat faster than a large one 
under similar conditions of load, and the more expensive models have a 
larger motor and grinding chambers of all-stainless steel.  A larger 
motor in a larger enclosure will also dissipate heat better than a small 
one.  My own grinder is built with the cheapest available disposal 
($30), with only a 1/3 hp motor (At the time, I considered it 
experimental.).  But even so, I can grind continuously for about 1/2 
hour before the heat overload pops.  If I ever get tired of that, I will 
buy the best 3/4 hp $200 disposal I can find.

3.  Of course you can engineer and build your own unit at home.  Claude 
Jolicoeur of Quebec did that, and is very satisfied with the result. 
But I suspect that Claude is either a skilled machinist, an engineer, or 
both.  I wouldn't know where to begin to build a grinder without off-the 
-shelf parts.  Claude is pretty sure his grinder is faster than a 
disposal, and one of these days I will load the disposal grinder in the 
pickup and drive to Quebec for a grind-off with Claude.  Win or lose, at 
least I would get a nice trip to Quebec, and probably have quite a bit 
of fun in the process.

4.  The Italian hand-cranked machine in the link posted by Tom looks 
pretty good, but at $200 is no cheaper than the best garbage disposal. 
While Italian-engineered machines are often very good, I look at the 
picture of this thing and wonder how its little rollers would deal with 
whole apples, and what kind of slurry would emerge below.  Aside from 
the fact that I think a garbage disposal would be much faster (and motor 
driven as well), it is the quality of the slurry that determines juice 
yield.  When I was using a toothed grinder, 2 gallons per (54 lb.) 
bushel was a good yield, and I threw out about as much juice with the 
cake as I produced.  The disposal grinder will produce 3 gallons per 
bushel even with dry apples, and up to 4 gallons with good ones.  Heaven 
only knows what the Mother Earth News washing machine grinder produced, 
but I don't think I could get my wife to turn over the washing machine 
for such an experiment.  She would probably tell me to go out and buy a 
steamroller.

5.  Among the comments that I have received in the past on the disposal 
grinder is that it must be "unhygienic".  Well, not really.  You don't 
use it for garbage, after all, and cleanup is a snap: Just run the hose 
down the throat for a few minutes with the motor running, then squirt it 
up from below through the discharge pipe.  I have dismantled my disposal 
after a season's use, and found it squeaky clean in the grinding 
chamber.  Another is that cutting the apples before inserting them in 
the throat slows down the operation.  Well, not by much.  When I was 
using the "apple eater" grinder I found that whole apples would just 
bridge up or rotate over the grinding drum, and I had to cut them in 
half to produce even apple pieces.

6.  Finally, while I have not heard from too many people who have tried 
the disposal grinder, I have heard from no one who tried it and did not 
like it.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA