An Apple A Day

 

One of the things I love most about September, besides cooler mornings, the sight of school buses going up and down the block, and that first hint of color on the leaves, is the official start of apple season. Apples are a big deal around here. I live within driving distance of two big apple farms that let us go and pick our own apples out in the glorious countryside. I am also located about an hour south of the home of those delicious Cortland apples. And, as I have shared here before, I am only a few blocks from our local claim to apple fame, the Cider Mill, which not only sells cider, apples, donuts, and everything apple, but lets you see for yourself how the cider and the donuts are made ... and, of course, there are baskets and baskets of every kind of apple you can think of. Yep, you could say that we're the apple capital of New York!

What is it about apples that brings a smile to most faces? I can remember being a kid, opening my lunch box at school and being delighted to see a nice, shiny apple waiting for me along with my sandwich. I have wonderful memories of apple picking, apple festivals, and spending a whole day with family members making applesauce. When I am in the presence of apples, my whole self smiles inside and out.

I have to wonder if maybe there was a reason that, as a child, the story of Adam and Eve always showed the forbidden fruit being an apple? Or if there was some nobler reason why Johnny Appleseed went across the country planting apple trees? One thing is for sure and that is that apples loom large in American culture. I don't know if we have an official national fruit the same way we have a national bird, but if we decide to "pick" one, I vote for the apple hands down. Nothing says love like an slice of warm apple pie and a glass of milk!

And so it is.