Things to Come

I was just looking at a postcard that was sent to my daughter, Amanda Yoder by her grandmother, Retha Morrison. Retha passed away ten years ago and passed a shoebox filled with postcards. I have tried to share them, one each morning on Facebook. This morning I shared a card that had a photo of a snow covered Mt. Leconte and in the foreground a blaze of color, autumn trees in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and it reminded me that were are on the cusp of the seasonal changes.

I do enjoy the fall colors and the flurry of activities associated with it. I am thankful for the beauty in the changing of the leaves and the many festivals celebrating the harvest and the bounty that the earth has provided. Apples hang thick on the trees this year and knowing the need to pick them soon to make apple pies, dry them to create and store schnitz, and to render them with spices into apple butter.

I will be in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania in October 14, and 15 frying sausage for the volunteer firemen celebrating their Buckwheat and Sausage Festival. Every year they serve old-fashioned buckwheat cakes with their slightly sour taste, fried to a lacy golden brown, pancakes, for those who don’t like the tang of the buckwheat cakes, whole hog sausage, fried potatoes, and apple sauce. The meal is truly a celebration of the harvest.

I have helped them celebrate for forty plus years, working my way up from washing dishes, to “baking” the cakes, and now to frying of the sausage. The work is demanding and sometimes stressful, but it is the camaraderie that keeps me going back, year after year.

The firemen also make and sell hand pressed apple cider, chopped and squeezed right before the customers’ eyes. A small area of arts and crafts surround the area selling, leather goods, kettle corn, jewelry, and hand crafted items of all sorts. The serving of the food starts at eleven a.m. and continues until seven p.m.