Cider Making Time

Mysterious October is almost here. She will quietly slip through the trees and down the hillsides barely being noticed by anyone.  The hazy sunlight filtering through the windows reminds us that autumn bliss is here, too. The leaves are beginning to change and the air is filled with the aroma of apples…Yes, apples! Everywhere you look; there are apples for sale… Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Jonathan, and somebody’s Granny Smith apples are in every market and along the roadsides. Apple cider fills the shelves of the fruit markets, grocery stores, and at the fall festivals, just begging us to take home a jar-or two. There is nothing better than a cold glass of apple cider to go with your noonday sandwich; or on a cold day, a  cup of hot cider with a taste of cinnamon sprinkled in will take the chill right out of your bones.  Nevertheless, apple cider is not the only thing apples are good for. There is America’s favorite, the apple pie. Who can resist the temptation of a hot biscuit, oozing with margarine and filled with homemade apple butter! I proclaim that my friend Barbara can make some of the best fried apple pies I have ever had the opportunity to sink my teeth into. 

The apple gets a bum rap when it has often been referred to as being the fruit on the forbidden tree that tempted Eve to sin and caused the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. We do not know that for sure, about the apple I mean... but I can understand if it were. They taste so yummy and can be cooked in so many ways.  Down through the centuries the apple has been the one thing that has held friendships together. For sure, the best way to share friendship is to share a big juicy apple!

Something that is a lost art in today’s world is the old-fashioned apple cider making gatherings that took place during the pioneer days. An event where friends and neighbors for miles around would gather at each of their neighbor’s farms during apple picking time. It is just a picture I can see of friends and family gathering to spend the day sharing the work and topping it off with a good meal and music. It was a time when neighbor helped out neighbor and the love for fellowman was a way of survival. I’ m sure there was a job for even the smallest child and the oldest granny to do. What with gathering the apples from the tree, pealing them, carrying them to the apple press to be mashed into juice, taking turns cranking the handle to the chopper, and keeping the hopper filled, it took a whole lot of manpower. There was no fancy equipment for this operation, only muscles.

Picture this: The day is brisk. Smoke fills the air as wagon loads of families gather at a neighbor’s farm just as the morning sun rises. Coffee is brewing on a make shift stove and a breakfast feast is spread out for all to enjoy. I can sit back, shut my eyes,and imagine I can smell the homegrown fried potatoes, bacon, eggs, and bread, keeping warm over the fire. Laughter of children fills the air as they run from tree to tree filling their baskets with beautiful, red apples. A flock of wild geese goes honking overhead perhaps on their way to a warmer climate. Soon the day's work begins as the sound of the apple cider press clanks as someone turns the crank. The trickle of amber juice runs into a container and used to fill the cider jars. The work goes until it is finished, then a time has been set aside for some food, music, and some hoedown dancing…Can you just imagine the fiddles, guitars, and washboard rhythm taking place and hear the old songs being sung.

Dark gathers and so do the families gather their coats, sweaters, and children. It is time to head home after a day filled with hard work and socializing with their neighbors and family…God is good and everything is good with His world.

Did we miss something by not being here during those days of yesteryear? Probably yes, but in today's world we still have the same feelings for others.  You can be assured that when God's people gather for a workday to beautify the Church there will be the sound of laughter. And after a day of work there will be food spread on the table...Good food, good friends, that is the way God planned for it to be. We are to love one another..From  the King James Version of the Bible it is recorded that we love one another:

Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.  Leviticus 19:18

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.  Proverbs 17:17

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you....Matthew 5:44

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall have everlasting life...John 3:16

Happy apple picking time, y'all. Fall is here and all is right and moving along as God has planned it to be. And one more thing, at every gathering where there is food and pleasure you can be sure there will be a dish of apples in some form or fashion present on the table... That is the way I see it.

                 Walk hand-in-hand with God today,

Mary Frances King