September always reminds me of a simple task I enjoyed as a child—helping my grandmother dry apple slices. Despite living in the city for years, she continued many traditions learned while growing up in the Smoky Mountains. Forget store-bought fruit. To her, September meant harvesting apples and preserving them for winter use the same way her mother and grandmother did years earlier. During those simpler times, groups of women peeled and sliced bushels of apples under a shade tree as their kids spread the slices on wood boards laid in the sun. When the slices turned light brown and shriveled to half their original size, they were stored for future use in pies, stack cakes, and numerous other tasty treats.
Fast forward to my childhood, and I recall my mother and grandmother doing the same with a few minor modifications. Our patio picnic tables replaced the boards, my sister and I were the only slice spreaders, and we ate about one in four slices along the way. When Thanksgiving arrived, my grandmother made one of her scrumptious old-fashioned stack cakes with some of the dried apple slices, and we enjoyed them twice as much.
Many times taste and memories go hand-in-hand, and to this day I’ve never eaten a more delicious apple stack cake than the ones back then . . . handcrafted the simple way and filled with family love and tradition.
What’s your favorite way to eat apples?
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P.S. Congratulations to MJ for winning this quarter’s book giveaway.
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