John and I both enjoy hot cider. Apple and peach are our favorites. And this time of year invites us to the porch with a mug in hands. This has become a chosen response to the changing season.
Even though there are no fall breezes yet, the respite will be peaceful. Holding the warm mug and savoring the tart, yet sweet, flavors is only made better only by the ginger snaps I will dunk in the mug. (My Nanna taught me this added bonus to savoring cider or hot tea.)
Since I haven’t shared a colonial recipe with you, this drink made me think of the cider most often drunk by all ages during the eighteenth century.
One recipe/receipt gives these simple instructions for Hot Spiced Cider.
“Pour a gallon of cider into your kettle. Drop two cinnamon sticks and eight cloves into cider. This may be heated hearth side. You may wish to add one quart of scuppernong wine for extra flavor.”
The founders of our country enjoyed cider. Benjamin Franklin said: “He that drinks his cyder alone, let him catch his horse alone.”
One of my favorite memories of our visits to Williamsburg is walking the streets with a cup of hot cider and a molasses cookie. Along Duke of Gloucester Street at Chowning’s Tavern Cider Stand are these drinks and snacks.
As I look forward to inhaling the flavors from my cup, I know that the combined smell of fruit and spices would have also beckoned everyone to the fireplace in a one room cabin in the 18th century.
Good things in life don’t change, but we need to remember to choose them. A safe harbor of fellowship can be found on a porch or around a fireplace; the century doesn’t matter. It’s the people we are making the memories with who are the most important.
Speaking of smells, and also sights and sounds of the eighteenth century, I want to invite you to visit Festifall at Walnut Grove Plantation this first weekend in October. Today and tomorrow the community is invited to join reenactors to celebrate that early life in our county. This year, it is a free event to enjoy time together outside.
Sheila Ingle 