North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["John Barbowski" <jbarbowski@gmail.com>]

Denis,

 

If you were near me. I would definitely go out of my way to procure your goods!

 

jmb

Thornhill Ontario (Cdn Zone 6b - just north of Toronto)

(where it is finally a glorious sunny warm - 11 C day; time to pick my Golden D's and

work on my small greenhouse)

 

On 10/30/06, Dennis Norton <dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com> wrote:

Those who sell their crops direct to the public have a liability if they do
not take precautions in the processing of their crops.  Here at Royal Oak
Farm we process our own cider and our own honey.  We purchase sanitized
bottles for both.  Then we sanitize them again before filling.  We do not
pasteurize our honey.  there is no need to.  But we do pasteurize our cider.
We wash our cider apples in the same washer as our other apples in a Tsunami
100 solution for 45-60 seconds.  all that is required is 25 seconds.  When
we use drops for cider, they are washed last and are run through the washer
twice.  Then we change the water before washing any other apples for that
are processed for sale.  We do not allow pets to be brought onto out grounds
nor do we allow outside food to be brought in, since we are a certified food
service with our county.

Our cider is flash pasteurized to 160 degrees.  Cider pasteurized to 180 or
above is no longer cider but apple juice, which is the main difference
between the two.  By the way, organic apples that have been sprayed with
pyrethrines produce carcinogens when heated to 180 degrees or above.  So
much for healthy organics.  Because we have school tours and each child gets
a 1/2 pint of cider as part of the tour, we add 1/10 of 1% potassium sorbate
to the cider going into those 1/2 pints as an additional precaution.  Since
1997 when we opened to the public, we have never had an incident with
someone getting sick from our products.  Oh yes. and we sample each batch of
cider, date it, and pull it if it has not sold in 14 days.  We use the cider
we pull in out cider donuts we make since it still has a shelf  life of  at
least 7 more days.

When serving to the public, every precaution should be taken.  We all work
too hard for our products to make someone ill with them and lose what we
have worked so hard for to attorneys!


Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
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