"A" is for Apple Cider Mill!

We recently visited an apple cider mill about 40 minutes from our home for the first time, and what a sweet adventure it turned out to be! Lattin's apple cider mill is a favorite field trip for our area's school children and a fun family outing.  I spent much of the time wishing one or more of my grandchildren were with us and hope that someday they will. The mill is also a petting farm and pumpkin patch, and has vegetable and flower gardens that are offering the last of their bounty.  I've long had a curiously strong bond with goats, and goats were sprinkled throughout the farm for people to pet and feed.  The picture below shows a couple of high-rise goats in their element as children send up small amounts of food in buckets on pulleys, a mutually enjoyable activity.

A very debonair fellow whom I'm sure cannot resist...

The winsome smile of this cute little face.

The Cider Mill has games for children and their adults to play, including a large apple sling-shot that flung apples across a field in hopes of hitting a bulls-eye target.

Perhaps another apple remedy to keep the doctor away?

Now, we need to get to the exciting part,the part that will keep me going back to Lattin's cider mill year after year after year, because I currently have within me a deep longing,a memory that is so powerful that I can almost recreate it with my eyes closed, nuance by nuance...Lattin's fresh, warm, incredibly soft, delicately seasoned apple fritters. I don't think I have ever in my life tasted anything quite so perfect.  These apple fritters had a flawless blend of  texture, flavor, temperature and apple-essence. My husband and I ate our perspective fritters slowly,their soft cinnamon little apple pieces and tender dough filling our mouths with warmed apple Nirvana. We kept closing our eyes and muttering, "Mmm..." soulfully. Afterwards, we walked around the little barn jonesing for another but feeling too foolish to admit it...for about five minutes.

So...we went back for seconds, skipping lunch all together and not feeling the least bit guilty! We even bought some of Lattin's famous national award winning apple cider. A wonderful spicy treat that when warmed is perfect for a chilly fall day, proving even though our gardens are losing their beautiful flowers and vegetables for the season, the Washington apple is just getting warmed up!

*I personally don't think that Eve presented an apple to Adam, although it is a beautiful and cultivated fruit to be sure. I think, rather, she was handing him a pomegranate, using her womanly wiles in hopes he would get the seeds out. Enlightenment has its price. :)