Sad Autumn in Ohio
In line with local shopping/dining/markets, one of my favorite things in fall is going to local apple orchards. I love getting fresh apples picked on the premises, and my favorite orchard also presses their own cider.
Cider is like liquid autumn to me. The taste reflects the colors of the season. Stolz’s Fruit Farm, outside of New Carlisle, prides itself on the cider they press every year. This year, however, they’re pressing no cider at all.
Why is that, you ask? In April, there was a freeze in Ohio that experts say has reduced the crop by 46% across the state. At Stolz’s, however, it affected 100% of their crop. The only apples they have on hand are brought in from orchards from Indiana and Michigan, both good apple states, but it’s just not the same as getting them from the same orchard on which the apples grew.
To top this off, southwestern Ohio is in a severe drought this year, which means fall color will be pretty much brown. I live in a heavily wooded area, and my own 5 acres has trees that are just dropping leaves before they have a chance to get any color, as though the trees are just glad to not have to provide the leaves with any sap! I’m still hoping for some reds, oranges and yellows, but I’m not holding my breath.
Even with the disappointments in the season, it will still be a great festival season; I’ll report on the largest festival in Ohio next time, the Sauerkraut festival, which turns a town of 2500 into a madhouse of 342,000!
Let’s all hope for better fall weather, and how about some rain to help with the color?
