Cider in the City at Allandale Farm

Despite a steady rainfall which put a damper on the barrel fire and cider pressing, last nights Cider in the City event at Allandale Farm was packed with young and old alike sampling a variety of lesser known apple varieties paired with cheeses from around the world! There was also the cider. Hot & cold cider circulated around with an offering of hard ciders from Farnum Hill Ciders from Lebanon, NH's own Poverty Lane Orchards!
The abundance of cheese and apples (one of my favorite food combination) would have been enough for me, but the addition of hard ciders along with some other delicious treats made this a really fun, and only slightly crowded event!
We even took home some treats with us! Our haul included cheese: Valdeon, a really nice earthy blue as well as a buttery smooth Manchego! Along with the cheese we also brought home 2 bags of  apples, 2 small rosemary seedlings, a few cider donuts and a gallon of cider (duh!).
With the farmstand ringing with laughter and conversation and full of seasonal produce specialty goods from Allandale and other producers, the event felt like a kickoff to the thanksgiving/holiday/winter season. The event left me in really great spirits and has me looking forward to the upcoming weeks of food and celebration with friends, family, and loved ones.
What has gotten you in a seasonal mood? Are you ready to celebrate?

Cranberry-Apple Sauce

Gail and I  also looking into incorporating jam or jelly into our wedding somehow, and I am currently looking for recipes with a certain color, in conjunction with thanksgiving on the horizon, means now is the perfect time to stock up on cranberries and try some new recipes. I've been on the hunt for a good Cranberry Sauce recipe and came across Marisa from Food in Jars awesome recipe for Apple-Cranberry Jam. The only alteration to the recipe was just a little bit of extra cranberries, not much at all though. 

I let it cook down to the consistency of a cranberry sauce instead of a jam and promptly processed it.

Cran-Apple Sauce

The result was a great tasting beautifully burgundy cranberry apple sauce that isn't overly tart or overly sweet. A perfect test batch with enough jars to share with friends and family before thanksgiving!

Cider in the City - Allandale Farm.

Wednesday night was Allandale Farms antique apple event Cider in the City. The event was packed with lots of kids running around and filling up on apples, cheese, cider donuts, and cider!

Cider in the City featured some great apple related products:

Farnum Hill Cider was on hand offering samples of their Semi-Dry and Extra-Dry sparking ciders as well as Extra-Dry and Kingston Black Reserve still ciders. Located at Poverty Lane Orchards in Lebanon, NH they believe in the traditional meaning of cider, - an alcoholic beverage fermented from apples, similar to wine, but replacing grapes with apples. Gail and I preferred the sparkling ciders. I ended up coming home with a bottle of the Semi-Dry sparkling cider which I will be enjoying on thanksgiving.

Also on hand were cider donuts from courtesy of local bistro Vee Vee. I've never met a cider donut I didn't like. Though I prefer them warm and fresh the offering from Vee Vee was more dense then usual but utterly satisfying. The extra's made for a great companion to my morning coffee yesterday and today!

The real highlight for me was the Scott Farm (Dunnerston, VT) antique (heirloom) apples such as Ashmead's Kernel, Hudson's Golden Gem, and Roxbury Russet paired with savory cheeses like 2 year aged Grafton Cheddar, Valdeon Blue, and a truly delicious Chevre Noir from Fromagerie Tournevent of Chesterville, Que Canada. What is Chevre Noir? It is a goats milk cheese made in the cheddar style! Unique and delicious.

Speaking of cheddar, while at Allandale I grabbed a 7 oz. wedge of Ford Farm traditional farmhouse cheddar. While not local, Ford Farm cheese's are made using traditional slow production methods and bear the EU Protected Designation of Original seal.

Cider in the City obviously also featured both hot and cold cider as well as a cider press demonstration which many of the children were mesmerized by. Not to mention a delightful barrel fire which would have been nice to warm up next to had it not been a balmy 60 degrees all afternoon.

All in all it was an excellent way to wind down after work and enjoy a variety of cheeses and apple products. A wonderful celebration of the fall harvest, we came home with a bottle of hard cider, a bag of antique apples, a pound of cheese and half a dozen cider donuts.

"Life has been pretty good. Who am I kidding it's been grand." ~Al Schnier - moe.

How have YOU been celebrating the fall harvest season??