DO YOU SIP CIDER... throughout the year? Take heart, for there are many other devoted ciderists out there who would totally understand your daily drink. For while we're expected to enjoy many of the falltime pleasures solely from September through November, they're so delicious, and so crisp, and so crunchable, and so very sippable, that we regularly savor them during the other non-autumnal seasons, too. But when we're about a month or so out from the equinox, and back-to-school ads are appearing, and harvest festivals are blowing in on the breeze, our desire for our favorite libation, and all of the attending apple-y goodies (hello pie, doughnuts, and pastries), can grow intense. Thank goodness that some area farms and apple-oriented destinations rev up their pomme-tastic parties in August, long before fall arrives, to get autumn aficionados excited.
APPLE HILL, in Placerville, is holding its 2017 Harvest Kickoff on Saturday, Aug. 12 and Sunday, Aug. 13. That means you can get your fill of treats like the apple donut ice cream sandwich, and you can enjoy a road trip out to Gold Country as the summer winds it on down. Of course, Boa Vista Orchards keeps open hours, and very busy, beyond the fall season — perhaps you attended the Blackberry Festival a few weeks back, in July — but you can count on the harvest season to truly bustle with people seeking cider and all of the rosy pleasures that apples bring, food-wise and craft-wise and dessert-wise and everything-wise. Need to jumpstart autumn? Go Placerville, and keep in mind that the Gravenstein Apple Fair is flowering in Sebastopol on Saturday, Aug. 12 and Sunday, Aug. 13, too. Fall fans? Hang tight: It's nearly here.
