If it’s the third Tuesday of October, then it’s Apple Tuesday, formerly known as National Apple Day, begun 110 years ago in 1904. What better time than now, the height of autumn, to honor something so simple yet so wonderful? Ralph Waldo Emerson called the apple our national fruit, and that’s pretty accurate, I’d say, beginning with the first apple plantings in the colonies and spreading throughout the country (thanks, Johnny Appleseed!) as settlers ventured further and further west across the continent.
The apple pictured here is the last of four apples that Seth’s sister gathered from the apple trees at his parents’ home in Maine before she came to visit a couple weeks back. Though she gathered four for us, she delivered only three, because she ate one on the flight down. That right there is the spell that apples cast upon us. The best apples, like this one, are crisp, tart, and sweet all at the same time, with an intoxicating aroma that sometimes makes them downright irresistible. We’re not sure what variety this apple is, but the Thompson homestead is an 1820s farm house, so who knows how old or what variety they are. All I know is this apple is here on my desk, and I plan on savouring every bite of it later today. It may not look perfect, but I know it will be amazing.
And I apologize for the brief absence. I had to finish my taxes last week, and there’s a reason why the words taxes and taxing are so similar. I sent my completed return off just in time last Wednesday with a hope and a prayer that my calculations are correct. Math and tax laws are both far removed from my list of strengths. Apples: I know apples pretty well. I’d prefer to stick to apples.
We’ve also been busy unpacking new items from the craft cooperative in Mexico that makes all those great handmade traditional crafts we offer for Dia de Muertos, Day of the Dead. Many of the new items are now posted at the Convivio Bookworks website and we’ll get the last of them loaded there this evening. Lots of new things we’re so excited about!
