As the calendar turns to October, our minds naturally turn to crisp days, cozy evenings, and the approaching holiday of Halloween. What do all of these things have in common? The use of fall’s favorite fruit: apples!

If the summer is for berry picking on Sauvie’s Island, the fall is for apple picking in the Gorge. We are lucky enough to live in a region brimming with fruit orchards of all kinds. Taking your family apple picking in October is a great way to root children in knowledge of where their food comes from. In the PNW fall can easily switch between cloudy dreary days and crisp sunny ones. We have to take advantage of those golden days while we can! Check out PDX Parent’s list of where to go for the U-Pick experience at an apple orchard this October.

When the rain is coming down and it gets dark earlier and earlier, it is natural to want to curl up with something warm. Since many folks try to avoid caffeine before bed, that leaves us with tea or – if we’re lucky – warm apple cider. Apple cider is different from apple juice. Apple juice is pressed, filtered, and sweetened. In order to make it more shelf stable, preservatives are often added. Apple cider is made from freshly pressed apples with no added sugar and minimally processed. This explains the difference in color. Apple juice tends to be golden while apple cider is often darker, almost an orange form of brown. That is also why apple cider jugs sometimes have sediment at the bottom. Because of the lack of preservatives, apple cider is more of a seasonal drink than apple juice is. Apple cider can be served hot or cold, with a cinnamon stick, or a wedge of lemon, or a splash of bourbon. Every which way, it tastes like the autumn season incarnate.

The approach of Halloween brings with it all sorts of fall farm fun: corn mazes, hayrides, carving pumpkins, and bobbing for apples. The history of bobbing for apples isn’t a spooky one however. In Britan in the 1800s, bobbing for apples was a fun form of divination, like picking the petals off a flower and repeating, “he loves me – he loves me not.” Because apples are less dense than water, they float. Bobbing for apples began as a way for young women to determine if they had a future with their suitor. The name of young men would be written across an apple. If the woman could bite and secure the apple in one try, they were destined to be together. In two tries, it meant the suitor would pursue the woman but they’re future was uncertain. If she couldn’t catch his apple, they were not meant to be.

It is easy to see why this tradition became linked with Halloween. Apples are at the height of their season in October, ripe for picking, cooking, preserving, pressing, and inclusion in community celebrations. As the romantic aspect of the game faded away over time, the apples stayed a core part of October holidays and traditions.