It’s raining today and the temperature is dropping quickly. I have a big pot of lentil soup on the stove, comfort food for the upcoming chill. From the stove I can gaze out into my backyard. The wintery sky is grey, and more colourful leaves lay on the ground than still hang in the balance from the tree boughs. We will have to rake soon, but that is a thought for another, dry, sunny day.
Last week, on Thursday, we went on our annual visit to Carver’s Apple Barn in Cosby, TN. My sister, Leslie and her husband, Mike came along, this is their 4th year as part of the adventure. I have written about this trip several times in this blog, here in 2005 and here in 2008, and here in 2022, each trip is a little different and certainly our appearances have changed over the years.
In the early days, when we were beginning this Apple Barn tradition, we were focused on the obvious, apples. In those days we were backpacking a lot and shopped for apples to dehydrate for future trips. We also picked up apples to freeze for later use in apple sauce and apples for pies. Of course, apples to eat were important too. We would come home with a variety of 1/2 bushel bags overflowing with green, pink and red apples. Apples that had pleased our taste buds and met our criteria, mostly a combination of firm texture and sweet-tart flavour.
Then came the work, the peeling, slicing, and dehydrating or freezing. For a few days, the kitchen was a flurry of activity as I worked to prepare the apples before they went soft, or even worse, before the bruised spots turned to rot. I was rarely successful at saving all the apples. By the time I finally reached the bottom of the bags, I was usually grabbing at mush. I had, by then, become overwhelmed with the process or more likely, bored. Yet year after year, I forgot about the work and managed to come home with more and more apples.
These days the trip is mostly about fall colours, pictures and warm conversation over lunch, apples provide the reason to go. We still taste and select our favorites, but we pick up only small bags. No peeling, dehydrating or freezing when we get home, just eating. In our apple bags this year, Pink Lady and Carousel.
This year we journeyed to Cosby a week later than last. The reward for our wait was peak colour, or almost so. We stopped at our favorite pull-off on east side of the Foothills Parkway and found a bit of haze hanging over the mountains. Reds, oranges and yellows were widespread but the colours were muted and did not pop as they do on a cloudy day.
We took our pictures. I am not sure how this pull-off on our Carver’s Apple Barn trips became the location of our annual photographs, but it did. Some years the photographs are better than others, and well, what he (John) said about this year, “we look like a bunch of old people”. Yes, we do and yes, we are! I told my sister I thought we looked like our aunts. We both laughed about that.
After the Apple Barn, we lunched at A Taste of Dandridge in Dandridge, TN. The food leans heavily toward southern home cooking and is good enough for our relatively unpolished tastes. Some driving, lots of laughter and all too soon we were home. Such a fun day! Based on Leslie’s purchases at Carver’s, I am looking forward to a blueberry pie for the holidays, a pie made with their homemade pie filling.
This morning, before going out for a walk, I participated in a little writing challenge. The challenge was to write a poem in 10 minutes with no changes. A single word was provided as a prompt. I never feel like I can think fast enough to be successful with such challenges but here it is, a handful of words in less than 10 minutes with no corrections. I enjoyed this sufficiently enough to try again tomorrow. The prompts go on for 21 days. One gets better with time and effort, right?
Moment
“In a moment,
She closed her eyes and was gone.
Left for peace, for joy, for quiet.
Time goes on,
But the moment lingers…”
So, that’s it for me today, soup, apples and poems, totally unrelated topics but somehow all relate to fall, in my mind anyway. I can’t believe November is almost here. The holidays are just around the corner. I love this time of year!
-Beverly
