There are two things I absolutely love about September: the start of football season and apple season!
Yesterday I had my fill of NFL games and enjoyed every minute even if my favorite team didn't win it's first game. The fact that we even have a football season this year, even with no preseason games to get the guys ready and whet our appetites, is a gift and I will hang in there and root for every game in gratitude.
Today, however, what I refer to as my applesauce itch is starting to make itself known. That's when I get up one morning, breathe in the cool, crisp air, smell the apples sitting in the fruit bowl on my table, and think "is it too early to start making applesauce?" The answer in my case is, of course, it's never too early to start making applesauce. In fact it's never too early to start making apple everything as far as I'm concerned. I've already tasted my first slices of apple pie for the season and have been buying apples since the orchards have started delivering their wares, although it's hard to keep my fruit bowl filled as each visit from my youngest granddaughter and great-grandson seems to empty it. That's okay. I'd rather have to go out and buy more apples then see them munching away on unhealthy snacks. Besides, now that apple season is here, I love to have a reason to get out there and check out each variety.
I don't know what it is about apples that stirs my soul in such a way. Sure, they are delicious and versatile fruits with an apple for every cooking and baking need. They have a wonderful aroma that reminds me of apple picking with the kids when we were all younger and days spent in the kitchen together peeling, chopping, and cooking the apples, adding the brown sugar and cinnamon that I love. Ah, the smells that filled the house! The jars were all washed out and lined up on the table awaiting their precious cargo. But I think it's more than the tastes and the smells. I think it's another symbol of the season, of harvest time and glorious fall foliage, of looking up to the sights and sounds of geese flying in formation as they make their way to warmer climates, of Halloween and pumpkins. I think that this year, however, these things mean even more to me. With all that has been going on, it's all of these little, happy things that keep me and others going. It's having something to look forward to that brings a smile to your face even if it's just peeling apples and filling jars. It's saying to myself that if I go to all the trouble of peeling and cooking this apple, it means that I have hope for tomorrow and all the tomorrows to come, when I will be able to pull a jar out in the depths of winter and still enjoy the tastes and memories of fall. If an apple a day will keep the doctor away, as the old saying goes, maybe it will keep despair and hopelessness away as well. Maybe it's hope in a jar.
And so it is.
