Even though it shouldn’t be such a surprise yet again this year, it seems like another summer season has flown by like the wind and fall, in all its glory, is knocking on the door.
Fall means a lot of great things for the outdoor loving women and men we hang around with – seasonal runs of damned fine fish (thinking of the big browns running up the Madison in the Park to spawn…), all sorts of hunting to do, squeezing in the last days of easy camping, fall hatches on whatever might be your favorite river, and so on and so forth…
Another great thing about fall happens to be apple season, which to be perfectly honest, we never fully appreciated until spending a few years in northwest Washington state – home of some of the finest apples grown in the lower forty-eight.
Along with bushels and bushels of great apples (Pink Ladies probably our favorite for eating out of hand) comes gallons and gallons of fresh-pressed cider, some of which of course is destined to be crafted by that glorious alchemy into delicious hard ciders. Hot damn.
A friend from the wooden boat world in Port Townsend (thanks, AJ!) sent this one – The Stone Fence – over last week with a pic of his family’s cider press hard at work on their back deck overlooking the harbor there.
He prefers it with rum or brandy, though being children of the South, we think bourbon fits best.
2 ounces rye, bourbon, rum, or brandy
1 dash Angostura bitters
Fresh-pressed apple cider to topGarnish: Mint sprig
Add ice to your (Collins) glass, drop in the bitters, then the spirit of choice.
Top to the rim with the apple cider, stir gently.
Garnish with the mint sprig and go to it.
Cheers.
