Historic Hood River
Cider Time
11-1-2011
Notes
When the cider presses start running you know summer is really over. We don’t know much about this image other than it is from the McIntosh collection.
Whenever I see one of these group portraits it reminds me that at one time photographs were special enough to warrant a careful pose. Even the dog seems aware of that fact.
l.e.
I really like this photo!
Very clear and professional looking.
Not sure how they are pressing, but they have lots of barrels to fill.
Charlott
If this is of the McIntosh family, the elderly gentleman is none other than George W. McIntosh. I can’t say that either of the women would have been his wife Dora Hanna McIntosh, though she was 20 years his junior. How many children they had I don’t know other than two, Ada who died when she was a little over 4 years old and a son Omar, who was a 10 pound baby boy.
This pictures tells so much…….how hay was harvested, notice the stack in the back. My guess is at the very right hand edge of the picture are "cribs" that held the "pulp" from the apples.
The various types of dress is amazing in one photo, from the boy with the button fly on his overalls, but with a tie on, little baby high top shoes to the "visitor" in his Sunday suit.
Yes, the dog, who it seems is being coached by the boy….to "stay."
Noticed the "board and battan" buildings
Dan
And as usual, nobody is smiling.
Jay
Approx date?
Charlott
If in fact the elder man is George McIntosh it is prior to 1914, as that is when he died.
Jack Sheppard
I may be missing something, but I don’t think those barrels are for cider. Before the apple box, apples were shipped in barrels. They had to keep the fruit from bouncing around–barrels got rolled after all– so they compressed the fruit "pack" by holding the head down with a screw press device, or a simple lever arrangement while they set the hoop on the end of the staves to hold the head in. I think the press arrangement is a barrel head press.
After apple boxes were created, the fruit was held in place by a bottom and top both made of veneer that would hold the "spring" on the pack after it was nailed shut. It was a much more satisfactory pack than the barrels.