APPLE CIDER MEMORIES AND SUGAR HIGHS

One of my favorite drinks is Apple Cider. You would think living in apple country would afford me the opportunity to drinking it whenever my heart desires, but I don’t. Apple Juice can never be as extravagant as Apple Cider.

To my mind there’s an unwritten rule we only drink it in the Fall, at the beginning of harvest, draining our cups until the end of November. Ice cold with a molasses cookie on a brisk Saturday afternoon, or spicy hot as a mulled toddy on a cool autumn evening, my Apple Cider drink brings back memories of every color and stripe, thoughts of my youth, and the youth of my children.

When I was young, Halloween cookies frosted with orange icing and candy corn were the staples of my diet during that season, as was that of all my friends. There were no calories in those delectable treats that we worried over, no concerns as to sugar content and diabetic comas. I carried on the tradition with my children, who were only happy to oblige. While they were not indulged with sugary cereals or kool aid, this was the season where concern over healthy eating went out the window. It is the stuff our memories are made of; between carving pumpkins and finding scary music to play, the sweet gobs of sucrose would stick with us like they stuck to our teeth, reminding us to stop only when it hurt to eat any more. Faces red with the cold on some Halloween evenings, we warmed ourselves with hot cider, a slice or orange and a cinnamon stick. Bags stuffed with candies and treats, it was another chance of holding onto innocence and childhood, even those who were well into their teens and would have thought otherwise this time together was so uncool.

Trick or treating was not only the signal of the end of the sugar highs, but the turning of the page towards Thanksgiving. That holiday had treats all its own, with hot apple pies and mountains of vanilla ice cream or a giant block of cheddar cheese.

And a nice hot cup of Apple Cider. How very blessed we are to be part of the season of harvest and all that it brings us. May we never take it for granted or the farmers who share it with us.