There is something about Autumn. What is it about this season that appeals to me so much? It could be the variegated combustion of golden-glow color that appears each year in the boughs of trees. It might be the brisk, clear, cool air that begs for a bundled-up walk-about. For me, I am sure it has a lot to do with all the stout, creamy, warm Fall fare that beguiles the belly and begs one to linger by an evening fire.
About a week ago, on the last calendar-day of Summer, we were invited to usher in this most ambling and soul-satisfying of seasons with an apple cider party. A friend’s parents have a small cider press and practically an entire orchard full of apples. The party was at their small farm. There were poultry, a cow, a pony, a lovely garden, tire swings, trees to climb and bushels and bushels of apples. From our surplus of produce foraged from the limbs of the trees and pilfered from the abundance of fallen fruits, we squeezed nearly twenty gallons of cider. The kids had great fun plunking their crop into the carnivorous blades of the apple chomper. Little apple bits were flung into a barrel where they were hand-pressed. The juice was extracted, strained and funneled into gallon jugs, leaving behind a yummy pulpy treat for the cow out in the pasture. Between shifts at the press we enjoyed a delicious homemade fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob, which came to us freshly picked from the garden not twenty yards from the kitchen where they were prepared. It was a beautiful way to usher in the Fall season, a great day for a whole gaggle of little ones to run amok together, and a genuinely lovely way to spend several hours with some really good friends.
