On some grey, cold winter days, my mood matches the weather. I want to stay inside watching depressing BBC dramas that take a few hours to flesh out into the bright “happy ever after.” That was the case for my icy snow day last Monday when I watched all four hours of North & South. (#noregrets) On other days, the sky may be dark, but I feel lighter, so I return to a lighter memory. The addition of smells and flavors of such a time doesn’t hurt.
Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Okay, I love all seasons for what they each bring. And when fall brings cooler weather, changing leaves, and produce ready to be picked, I am here for it. For me, apples will forever be associated with fall. (Despite our on-demand food system and cross-country transportation allowing us to enjoy them all year.) Throughout my nomadic days, I had the opportunity to visit three apple orchards - one in North Carolina while living in South Carolina and two in Connecticut.
In October 2012, I went home with a teacher friend to see her parents in Greenville for a weekend. We took her four-year-old son and their little dog Tinkerbell for a short trip up north. If I hadn’t gone with her, I probably never would have visited Greenville since it was farther away than a day trip. The weather was pleasant for October. Since we were farther north and closer to mountains, the air was more crips than sticky and humid, and it felt more like fall than farther south near Charleston. We didn’t see touristy sights in Greenville other than going to Fall for Greenville, their annual food festival held downtown modeled after Taste of Chicago. I can’t say I remember much - nothing about the food, drinks, or music - other than the streets being the most crowded place I have ever been. As she and I walked through the thoroughfare, we were shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers shuffling along en masse. The idea of tasting different foods and hearing live music was appealing and exciting until we found ourselves among thousands of others who had the same idea. Since it lasts over three days, maybe 150,000 to 200,000 people total flooding the downtown streets shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it felt like all those people chose Saturday night to attend. I’m not sure how long we stayed, and while I can for sure say that it was an “experience,” it wasn’t the highlight of that weekend for me.
What I really enjoyed was taking part in a tradition of my friend’s family. Each fall they visit Sky Top Orchard, just over the North Carolina border in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I’d never been to an apple orchard before, and while we didn’t pick any apples, it was fun to go on a wagon ride through their orchard and enjoy fresh apple cider donuts alongside her four-year-old son and her parents. Although I was far from my own family, I appreciated being a witness to the relationships of other families. Having a front-row seat to other people’s family dynamics was a bit like being a background or supporting actor in a movie. I wasn’t one of the main characters, but I took part by association. Their relationships continued without me, but for that hour and a half, or year, I was there, too.
A few years later in 2018, I visited two other apple orchards in Connecticut. Visiting an orchard should be on everyone’s “fall-in-New-England” bucket list since apples are quintessentially American. Apple trees have been in North America since they were brought by French Jesuits in the late 1500s. Then, when the Pilgrims were settling in New England, they planted apple seedlings throughout the area (Origins of Apples in America). Additionally, because food brought me to the area, when I got an opportunity to visit an orchard - twice - I took it both times. The first time was in September, and I tagged along with my roommate on an alumni outing with some of her sorority sisters. Neither of us remembers the orchard we visited, but with at least 66 orchards in the state in 2017, there were lots from which to choose. (It may have been Drazen Orchards, but I’m not positive.)
I did pick apples here and came home with a bag to eat, bake, and cook. Starting that fall, making and canning apple butter became my own tradition for a few years. (I like this recipe, and I add a bit more cloves and cinnamon.) I used fresh-picked apples when possible and put away the jars for Christmas gifts. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon when my roommate and I walked through the orchard chatting with young women who were members of her sorority. They didn’t actually know each other, but no one has to have much in common to enjoy a fall New England activity as wholesome as apple picking.
The second opportunity I took to participate in the “sport” was with my church’s youth group at Lyman Orchards in Middlefield, CT. I started volunteering with the youth group to get more involved, so when I heard they had a yearly tradition of visiting the orchard, I was happy to be another adult supervisor. The kids were a good group from a small church, so I probably wasn’t “needed.” Nevertheless, I was happy to join for another opportunity to pick apples, browse their Apple Barrel Farm Market with their famous Hi-Top pies, and eat more apple cider donuts.
In Montana, there were fewer apple orchards. However, there were apple trees in people’s backyards. Starting in September, they’d fall onto sidewalks and attract deer and sometimes bears if people didn’t pick them or clean the streets. Lucky for me, two of my MT family members had apple trees in their yards and were happy to share. In 2020, I applied for a business license to operate a cottage food baking business, and I could use fruit I didn’t have to purchase to make and sell pies under my Nomadic Baker Sweets and Treats LLC. I spent many evenings peeling and slicing small apples and bagging them to store in the freezer. They later went into apple lattice (similar to this recipe) and apple cranberry crumb pies (similar to this recipe), and I had enough apples left over to make my yearly batch of apple butter.
The last fall activity I enjoyed in Montana was apple pressing. Dave (read more about him here), one of my MT family members with an apple tree, built his own fruit press. One Friday in October 2020, the family and Covid-pod friends came over for dinner at the grandparents’ house, but not before it was preceded by making fresh-pressed apple juice. All the kids enjoyed taking turns cutting apples and turning the old-fashioned handle.
The snow held off that year, so the kids could still run around outside in short sleeves. It was one of the few Octobers when I lived there that I was able to enjoy autumn before the cold wind forced us in, or we had to enjoy the outdoors in multiple layers. There were mild temperatures, afternoon light filtering through the trees, a breeze off the Yellowstone River across the street, and the smell of apples in the air. That was another instance when I enjoyed being a supporting cast member. They weren’t my family biologically, but they welcomed me as one of them. I came over to their house after work, watched Dave’s and the kids’ excitement over the apples, sampled some juice, and was greeted in the kitchen by Barb, Dave’s wife - AKA “Mema” to all - asking what I’d like to drink.
The apple pressing was a fun activity, and it produced some delicious juice, but it was a lot of work for a product that quickly disappeared. Dave shared that roughly a five-gallon bucket of apples pressed firmly makes one gallon of cider. Since their tree produces small to medium apples, it took about 200 apples to fill one five-gallon bucket. This year, Dave had 2,600 apples from their tree! If 13 gallons of apple cider isn’t in your future, Ken has three apple recipes from The Harvest Baker that require quite a few less. There are Peanut Butter and Apple Crumb Muffins, Apple Applesauce Oatmeal Bread, and Caramel Apple Slab Pie. I first made the muffins on Halloween 2020. I’m sure I used fresh-picked apples, which I’d like to think enhanced the flavor. The recipe deserved a repeat, so I made them again yesterday, January 55th, when dreaming about fall weather. The Apple Applesauce Oatmeal Bread was made as a gift for my best friend the day she had her baby, so it would be waiting when she got home from the hospital. Lastly, the Caramel Apple Slab Pie was a Christmas dessert for my family this year. I love all things apple (including scones! Three recipes linked here), so I can’t recommend one of his recipes over the other. You’ll have to check out Ken’s book and try them all. And if you happen to be near an apple orchard in the fall, by all means, don’t drive by without stopping!
Thanks again to Allison Mayfield Photography for some great shots!
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