The Intrigue of the Familiar Essay

Essays have never really been something I've been all that interested or excited about, but that may have changed this week. On my way through the library last week, I stumbled across a small book titled At Large and at Small by Anne Fadiman. It is a book of something called "familiar essays." So far, I have really been enjoying them.....

Apples Galore

Several Saturdays ago now, I went apple picking with a friend and her kids at a nearby apple orchard. To be out in the crisp air amid all the trees, picking apples, drinking apple cider...was memories of fall all wrapped up in one day. It also gave new meaning to my reading of Robert Frost's After Apple Picking. I ended up with 20 lbs of apples, and my friend picked close to 100 lb of apples. Here is my bag-- a mix of melrose, golden delicious, and law rome apples. There are also a few winter banana apples somewhere down underneath all the other apples.

Small Treasures

Not so long ago, I had the pleasure of stumbling across damsom plums (I think) at the local farmer's market. So deep blue, they were too special to leave there....

They were a deep blue, like a blueberry, but about the size of a large grape.
A photo to get a sense of the size-



It took a bit of doing to slice these up, but I ended up with lovely tart (based on a recipe from the blog Lucy's Kitchen Notebook). It was tart enough to make your mouth pucker, but vibrant and flavorful, like the crisp air of fall.