I LOVE the fall. To me, Fall reminds me of back home in Indiana. I LOVE Indiana Fall Season. I love the changing colors of the leaves. But here is what I REALLY MISS.I miss getting fresh Apple Cider from Miller's Cider Mill in Middlebury. I miss the local High School Football games (Go Raiders!). I miss the harvest season; big pumpkins, squashes, and Indiana Sweet Corn.
And let me tell you that you have NOT tasted GOOD - I mean REALLY GOOD - Sweet Corn, until you've had some from Indiana. We actually have the corn all summer, but the fall is when I remember trying to hurry and eat it before the season ended. Often times dinner at our house was Corn on the Cob and bread & butter. It was divine!!! Let's see... I also miss seeing the pails hanging from the sugar-maple trees in Amish Country.
I remember my Grandpa (Miller) used to make his own maple syrup. I remember when I was little, and he'd hang the buckets to collect the sap. And behind his house was a shed, and inside was a bit Vat over a fire pit. He would cook the sap in there to make the syrup. I also recall my grandma gathering pie tins and butter knives and bringing them out to the shed to gather a little syrup on them. Then, all the older kids and adults would "work" the syrup with their knives to "pull" homemade taffy...mmm. I sure do miss that!!!
Funny thing...now that I remember the "vat" in the shed, I remember when Grandma and Grandpa had pigs, and finally about this time of year, the pigs were "ready". I don't ever remember a pig roast or anything like that. However, I DO remember Grandpa cooking (deep frying) pork rinds in that vat as well. (Hopefully it was cleaned out before the sap was added!)
Wow - I really have a hankering for maple taffy and pure maple syrup right about now...mmm.
10 comments:
I hope so too, does not sound like a good combination, maple syrup and pork rinds.... icky.
What a great tribute to fall.
you need to come visit!
I remember standing around the big vat or kettle eagerly awaiting my pork rind. But we called the cracklins. I also remember the maple taffy. I would eat half of mine, then work it, then setting it out on the enclosed porch to cool off. It would change to a whitish color, then I would eat the second half. Aaah, good times. I wanna go back to Grandma's house!
I was going crazy trying to figure out why I thought we were making taffy out in that shed. I was too young to remember what exactly it was. Wow, thanks for helping me figure it out. Now I know what that memory was about.
i remember taffy on pie tins. i have no memory of a vat.
I used to eat store bought Pork Rinds until I had Cracklins. I have not eaten a pork rind to this day. I had no idea of what it was until I saw it cooked. Sometimes it IS better to not be in the know. I still eat potato chips, and I know where those came from.
The brown sugar "taffy" was very sweet. I was brought up on Pulled Salt Water taffy, so I did not go ga-ga over this spun taffy, but as long as you kids liked it....
You paint such a great picture of Indiana. Are you sure you weren't doing a Blog Around the World feature? Hee,hee,hee.
Gotta love the fall! Sounds nice in Indiana too. I found your blog through Megan's and just love your writing style. So fun to read. Thanks for being so willing to share all the little details of your life with the world!
Your fall memories sound amazing! Fresh apple cider, yum!
I've been a city girl all my life so I have no idea what that would be like but it sounds so cool! What great memories! and yum about the corn...love fresh farm corn!
My friends lived in Indiana for a while and LOVED every second of it. Sounds awesome!
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