I broke out the slow cooker and got a hearty beef stew in the slow cooker ,cold air tonight, tomorrow a campfire with sam adams octoberfest brews .....

sounds great man, i always love fresh apple cider mmmm, enjoying some now

mmmm Octoberfest:cheer:

Sounds good! It was dark and rainy yesterday, and I stayed home and made a pot roast and mashed potatoes. Then today hit the orchard for cider and caramel apples. Can't beat comfort food in the fall!

got a big tote bag of apples in the crisper from the farmers market

WOW thestew cameout incredibleis stillgoing in the crockpot on warm slow cooked it for 12 hrs its so thick the meat is shreded and the carrots and taters are so soft super thick gravy just finished a big mug of it mmmmm mmmmmmm and those sam adams octoberfests are the shit,highly recomend them.Now a nice cigar and a nap with the cat while closing of winterland plays in the backround

Sam Adams is all right. But check out Spatan for some real German Oktoberfest. Also, if you can still find it, grab some Magic Hat Hex. Delicious. I'm actually finishing off my last six right now.

So, it's about 60 degrees, the trees are turning gold and red and orange and looking absolutely gorgeous. The next logical step is to go to the orchard and get some apples and cider (yeah fine, donuts and caramel apples too!). I've been doing that every fall literally since I was born. I mean, there's 3 orchards within 2 miles of me! So we get there and THERE'S NO FREAKING CIDER AND APPLES!!!

Seems that freaking drought this summer that hit most of us completely destroyed the Michigan apple crop! They have virtually none, and none at all to go pick yourself (what will the schools and scout troops do?!). The owner of the orchard told us they had so few apples, if they tried to make cider they'd have to charge 10 bucks a gallon and still wouldn't be able to make much. So, no local, just-picked apples, no fresh cider, no caramel apples. What a punch in the gut! Mother Nature is sure cruel sometimes!

Hope the rest of you in apple lands have better luck! At least the leaves look pretty and the donuts are still pretty good.

Local apples are in. But certainly more expensive than last year. Local orchards took a hit here.
I guess you have to look outside your area. More expensive, but like you, I crave apple's and
apple snacks. I especially love fresh cider, cider doughnuts, and applesauce.

it was the early warm spell then the freak snowstorm that killed off most of the blossoms but there are still apples here in PA