Our destination for FALL this year is Vermont. Vermont is one of my very most favorite places on earth. Fall in Vermont means stunning colorful autumn leaves of the sugar maples, the smell of sweet wood burning in the fireplaces, harvest dances at the local town halls, harvest full moon walks, plaid flannel, men letting their beards grow out in anticipation of hard cold winters, crisp fresh apples, apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, and a delicious harvest apple pie. When I lived in Vermont it felt like I was living in a movie. Everything you do in the small towns of Vermont is special unlike anywhere else in the world. Schedule a trip to Vermont and spend at least a week exploring the winding Green Mountain roads, little villages (yes they are called villages in Vermont), visit the local general/grocery stores, take a hike or swim in one of the many swimming holes of the fresh rivers. If you are there in the fall don't miss having a sip of fresh apple cider and an apple cider doughnut. Yes, it really does look like the beginning of Newhart even now in 2015 thirty years later and it's just as enchanting as the song Henry Mancini wrote for the show. Go ahead and listen. You will imagine yourself driving from small town to small town peeping at the rainbow of colors that cover the mountains this time of year.
I love this recipe for apple pie because it's a mix of both a pie crust and the taste of an apple crisp blended together in this delicious pie. I use locally grown apples which always taste best and are freshest. I was blessed this year to have a wonderful heirloom apple tree that is a remnant of the apple orchards that use to cover the small town of Orem, Utah.
Did you know? Many of the variety of apples were lost during prohibition because they didn't want people to make hard apple cider so the trees were cut down. So sad but if you are lucky and in Vermont and find a wild apple tree along the side of the road go and forage for some of these tasty old varieties that have long since disappeared from all most everywhere. You never know it could be along one of the roads (Hazen's Notch Road) President George Washington sent the troops up to Vermont to build during the revolutionary war.