Postcards and Cocktails

Twilight Hour Tuesday

It’s harvest time! The moment the entire year’s efforts have led up to is finally here! The season starts in late summer and culminates with a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables arriving at local farm stands this fall.

A recent drive through country roads landed us at Montgomery Orchards, Red Hook, New York. The farm stand offered an array of delicacies including chanterelles, baby zucchini, homemade jam, and apples. There were all kinds of apples. Apples for pies, turnovers, apple crisp and -a novelty for me-crabapple cider.

photo credit  A. P. Davis

This was just the right ingredient for a themed libation to celebrate the autumnal equinox and the beginning of fall. 

But first, a little background on apples.

The peak time for apple picking begins in early September and stretches through mid-October. The famous fruit is embedded in the American psyche. Not only did Eve tempt Adam with an apple in the Garden of Eden, but the kind-hearted Johnny Appleseed traveled the countryside sowing apple seeds in nurseries from Ontario to West Virginia.

Johnny Appleseed was born John Chapman in September of 1774. He devoted his life to harvesting apple seeds and planting them in nurseries where they could flourish. A nomadic fellow, he was known for his generous ways and the symbolic characteristics he attributed to apples. As a pioneering nurseryman, Johnny Appleseed was legendary for wearing a pot on his head, dressing in tattered clothes, and demonstrating kindness to animals and people alike.

photo credit Lisbon Festival Assn., eBay postcard

Some reports place him living near Grant’s Hill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. I don’t know if he sided with the farmers and their custom of turning left over grains into whiskey for barter without taxation, but it seems whiskey is the appropriate choice for our fall cocktail.

Lastly, we will incorporate the almond flavored liqueur, Amaretto. Why? Some folks thought there was just a pinch of nuttiness in Appleseed’s eccentric personality.

photo credit A. P. Davis

Try the Harvest Season Cocktail and raise a glass to Johnny Appleseed! Cheers to the pioneering nurseryman, who would have been 247 years old this September.

RECIPE:

2 oz. bottled-in-bond rye whiskey, 1 oz. Amaretto liqueur, 1 1/2 oz. crabapple cider (or any cider), 3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice, dash of Angostura bitters. Place in shaker with ice, shake, and strain into a chilled glass.

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