Our trees are loaded down with crispy, juicy apples. They’re not all the way ripe, but they’re far enough along to start eating for anyone who doesn’t mind a little tartness.
We bought an apple press with our neighbors and the four of us have big cider-making aspirations for the month of October. These are the things that make the end of summer a little less bitter, a little sweeter.
Something inspires the only cow of late
To make no more of a wall than an open gate,
And think no more of wall-builders than fools.
Her face is flecked with pomace and she drools
A cider syrup. Having tasted fruit,
She scorns a pasture withering to the root.
She runs from tree to tree where lie and sweeten.
The windfalls spiked with stubble and worm-eaten.
She leaves them bitten when she has to fly.
She bellows on a knoll against the sky.
Her udder shrivels and the milk goes dry.
-The Cow in Apple Time by Robert Frost
The Official Taste-Tester has been hard at work. He calls it quality control.
Some of them are red, some yellow, some green, and some a mottled mixture of all three.
Some of them are a wild variety, and some of them were planted a long time ago by the other people who lived and loved this place. Thanks, other people.
Have a great weekend!
P.S. I am running off to a friend’s wedding in Minnesota today, so perhaps you will forgive me for not posting the Dear T&M as promised {nor posting the cabin photos…..aakk! My excuse there is that my mother hasn’t sent them to me yet. I used her camera the whole time we were there because Mike needed ours left set up at home for a photo shoot we were in the middle of for a client.} Next week!!