rainy, chilly but could be worse

The week-long rain and overcast is finally over. The sun peeks through clouds occasionally this morning and shows every sign of soon winning the day.  I am fortunate that hurricane Joaquin didn’t arrive here and add to the already soggy ground.  For a while it looked as though that might happen, and that could well have been catastrophic.  Instead, Roundtop is just starting to dry out, and the weather feels like fall.

The temperature reached as low as 55 in the cabin this past weekend, while I resolutely refused to turn on the heat so early in the season.  I try to go until November 1 without heat, though I have given in, occasionally, on the last week of October.  I’ve never given in on the 3rd or 4th of October, however, and I wasn’t about to start this year. And now that the outside weather is returning to normal October ranges, I don’t have to think about it.  This weekend, the weather was cold enough that all the cats and half the dogs cuddled on the bed with me.  If you’d seen that bed you might have thought it was January.  In a blizzard.

By Sunday the rain mostly stopped, and though the sky was still overcast, the clouds were higher than earlier in the week, a promising sign.  I took advantage of the improving weather to go to the Apple Harvest Festival in Arendtsville PA, an annual two-weekend event of outrageously decadent food and hundreds of craft vendors and activities. I did manage to avoid the worst of the fried foods, where items that never occurred to me to fry, are.  Naturally, every stand has something apple-based—apple sausage, apple pancakes, apple fritters, turnovers, bread, coffee cake, apple crisp, caramel apples, fried apples and dozens more. I settled for the hot spiced cider, which tasted even better than usual on a raw day.  Even the non-apple staples like pulled pork or pit beef tastes better prepared outside over a wood smoke fire.

To me the festival marks the start of the Christmas shopping season, though I often come home with things for my house and not for someone else’s. My intentions are good, though.  This year I really coveted a finished tree-branch coat stand, and if it hadn’t been so heavy and needed to be carried out of the festival grounds, wrestled onto a shuttle bus and then walked to my car, I would have come home with it. Some things just aren’t meant to be.

I went early in the morning, hoping to beat the crowd, which worked for a couple of hours, though by early afternoon the crowds were near the normal crush.  I suspect that for most of the attendees, myself included, the day marked the first time we’d had our coats out since the spring.

Apple Harvest Festival

The National Apple Harvest Festival in Arendtsville PA is my favorite fall festival, favored even over my own town’s Farmer’s Fair, if not by much.  I like that the fairground is at the foot of the South Mountains, the grounds are nestled against the mountain.  No macadam or blacktop is seen anywhere, and tall mature pine trees cover much of the site.

Even when the fair is crowded, as it always is, walking among the pines feels peaceful.  The buildings at the fairgrounds are old, too, so I feel as though I am entering another time when I’m there.  They are wooden, some clapboard, most from the 40’s and 50’s, the most recent from the 1960’s. 

And of course the fair itself boasts that great fair food, with everything from soft pretzels to apple bread to the ubiquitous chicken barbeque and pit beef, cooked outside and with the smell of wood smoke and cooking meat all around. 

For me, the fair is usually my first attempt at Christmas shopping for the season.  I always find something for someone or several someones.  This year was no exception.

After a rainy Saturday, Sunday dawned perfectly clear.  The early morning was in the 30’s, but the temperature warmed up quickly, bringing with it hordes of fairgoers from several states.  I make it a habit to go early and do my wandering and shopping. Then I eat an early lunch and leave before the crowd worsens.  This year, the crowd on Sunday was even greater than usual because many people, myself included, waited out the rainy weather of the day before.  Crowds or no, I try to attend this festival every year.

Visiting the Apple Harvest Festival

A steam engine at the National Apple Festival, near Arendtsville PA

 October is the month of fairs and festivals in Pennsylvania, and this past weekend was the first weekend for the National Apple Harvest Festival, one of my favorites of the year. Perhaps what I enjoy the most is the festival’s location—nestled at the foot of a mountain surrounded by rolling hills of apple orchards.  Tall pines dot the festival grounds.  Nothing is paved, nothing is new and the food is outstanding.

Of course I eat too much at these events.  And I buy too many things, but that’s what you’re supposed to do.  So I bought a loaf of iced apple cinnamon bread, brought home some venison sticks and elk jerky, ate apple crisp and drank homemade soda.  I always say I’m going to buy Christmas gifts, but this year I didn’t buy any of those. I think I spent too much on food to have any left over money for a holiday that’s still more than two months away.

This year the weather was sunny and verging on hot.  Weather for this festival hits at a time of year when almost any meteorological event can occur.  I’ve been to festivals when it was cold enough to snow and now I’ve been to one that felt more like July than October.  I prefer the colder years, but then I always prefer colder weather to hotter temperatures.

The festival runs this upcoming weekend, too, and I’d love to go back, but I think I’ve managed to spend all the money I need to for a while.  It will be safer (and cheaper) if I just don’t go again this year. But don’t let that stop anyone else!

Making apple cider

 On a cold and blustery Sunday morning I went to the nearby Apple Harvest Festival, where I annually spend too much money and eat too much. This year was no exception.

Let’s start with the weather. Before the rain, fog and gloom of September, it was summer here. The fog has disappeared, if not the rain and gloom. Now somehow, between the clouds, the temperatures and the wind, I find suddenly find myself in November. At least that’s how it feels.


 The festival runs for two weekends. Next week is the second weekend. Crowds were light this weekend, at least on Sunday morning, which suited me and my dislike of trying to look over people, bumping into people, etc. I’m sure the organizers and the vendors weren’t thrilled. Likely, people are hoping for better weather this upcoming week. Vendors who were selling sweatshirts, hats and even gloves were doing a good business.

The festival is a great place to pick up a few gifts for Christmas, as the craft vendors are outstanding. I came home with a handmade basket, a couple of kugels (handblown glass balls sometimes called “witch balls”), a braided rug and a nice print of a pair of Carolina wrens and one of an old local barn.

After I couldn’t carry anything more, I decided it was time to start eating. This requires a trip around the entire fair as I can only eat so much, and I don’t want to eat one thing only to find something even better a few stands away that I simply can’t find room in my stomach for. This year I settled on a huge pulled pork barbecue and some apple crisp. I also came home with a loaf of homemade apple crumb bread.

I could have spent more money and would have liked to try the apple sausages or the pit beef and the interesting kinds of soda made by a local brewer. Perhaps I’ll just have to go back again this weekend.