The Cottage Smallholder

For excellent cider try page 267 of Farmhouse Fayre you can pick it up from Amazon cheap.  The cider recipe goes something like this;

Chop up loads of fallen apples, they say the smaller the better, chuck them in a bucket and cover them with a muslin and let it stand for 10 days  Now to stir it the best method I've found is to roll up the sleeves, wahs the arms and push down one side of the apples, this moves the other side up and over.  After the fermenttation has stopped add about 1 3/8 lb of sugar per gallon the bottle without the tops for about 14 days.  Put the tops on then forget about it for a few months, it becomes a beautiful sparkling drink and has quite a kick.  In the book they suggest a slice of beetroot to improve the colour but I don't bother.  You will need bottles which will take pressure glass beer bottles or plastic fizzy drink ones.  If you're in need of a decent sized bucket a plasterer's mixing bucket seems to be about half the price of a fermetation one, don't know about the grade of the plastic though.

It will be the best cider you've ever tasted and requires no fancy kit to get it going.  Oh and chill it in the fridge for a day or two before opening as this calms it down a bit, especially if you're using glass beer bottles.

While I think of it, when it comes to opening it's important to have two saucepans; one to stand the bottle and with the other one being held upside down over the bottle by an assistant, get your hands up underneath with a bottle opener and let her go!