The Apple Season

You gotta love great apples! There is so much one can make with an apple. A simple and sweet fruit with so many culinary possibilities. Last year we went to a farm that was close to our house and the apples in this cart were for the air gun. Yes, an air gun. Brian and Brianna shot apples out of the air gun into targets out in the field. The apples were actually pretty good, too. I love the Apple Festival in Elijay, Ga. It was the tradition of "us" girls to take the day and leave early and have breakfast on the square and begin our antique shopping and Christmas House gathering. The coolness of the morning where we have to wear sweaters and by mid-day it is much warmer and we shed them. We visit our vehicles intermittently throughout the day filling up the backseats and trunks with our personal finds and a few Christmas gifts as well. The aroma of apples, cinnamon, and hot apple cider fill just about every single store we enter and there is the background noise of the University of Georgia Bulldogs on a television set behind the counter or in front of a love seat, strategically placed so that husbands and boyfriends can take a load off and sit a spell. In their arms is always a bag or two. The square has benches all around the sidewalk areas and those too are filled with testosterone bodies that need that break and somehow bonding with the same as they sit and wait, patiently. The cobblestone sidewalks filled with Fall shoes hurrying about and whispers of "look what I found!" Giggles from ladies that are truly in their Fall element of finding that "one of a kind," even though the store keeper will bring out another item that is the same as soon as the patron leaves the store. It is a day that lives in my memory. These days when we packed our cars full and headed home. On the journey back down from the mountain we always had to stop at the Apple Barn. Purchasing homemade apple pies, apple cider, apple bread, cinnamon bread, rolls, apple sweets, and gathering those yummy sweat potato yams for our holiday cooking that would soon be upon us. Grinning from ear to ear and a red wagon full of our goodies, we sit one by one in the car as the other props our finds in our laps as we have filled every compartment in our car from the days treasure gathering. It is a ride back home that we treasure and cannot wait to show our families the goodies that we have found and only in our little minds we think that "no-one" has the same thing. Our children quickly find the apple goodies and we grab our husbands to help bring in our gifts so that we can stash them away for holiday wrapping. It is late, our feet are tired, our legs like jello, but we are home safe and all is happy in our hearts. This is what festival time is all about. Early rise, good food, conversation, shopping, and savoring the aromas that trigger our senses. Yes, it is always a great tradition to just simply "hang with the girls."

This is a memory I treasure, I will miss it this year...