UNION SPRINGS - There are many things distinct about fall: brightly colored leaves crunching underfoot, shorter, cooler days and multi-layered outfits. But few things are more iconic of the season than the harvest, which - for just a few months of the year - yields some of the most comforting combinations of spices, fruits and vegetables.
Squash, pumpkin and every variety of apple were cooked up and for sale Saturday at the Union Springs Taste of Fall, a community event that celebrated not only the foods of fall, but the season's traditional past-times, such as hay rides and face painting, as well.
“Get's everyone ready to buckle down for the winter,” said Karen Luziani, of Union Springs, who sold an assortment of seasonal baked goods Saturday.
Luziani has more than 300 cookbooks and bakes year-round. In the fall, she uses ingredients that are in season for apple pie, applesauce bread, pumpkin bread and chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate-coated sunflower seeds. It is among her favorite baking seasons, she said.
“It's the fall flavors - the pumpkin, the cinnamon,” she said.
About 100 miniature pumpkins, as well as an assortment of gourds, came to the Taste of Fall by way of a red pick-up truck from the Cayuga Pumpkin Barn.
In their second year of operation, the barn has fewer pumpkins than last year because of a cool July, but more visitors, said owner Rebecca Staehr.
“People are just excited to buy something local,” Staehr said.
No fall festival is complete without a solid supply of apple cider. Randi Wintamute sold jugs of the drink, as well as cider donuts and crates of fresh apples from the Apple Station, a local orchard.
“We look forward to fall,” Wintamute said. “That's our season.”
As far as apples go, fall is the only season there is.
The Apple Station stays open until the end of December, Wintamute said, to try to sell their entire harvest. But anything left over goes to compost piles, farmers' hungry pigs, or the woods, where deer dig them up from under the snow.
Among the many fall foods at the festival were offerings of Philly cheese steak wraps, chili and pizza. A mobile snack stand was chock-full of every sugar-coated, chocolate-covered, goo-fill candy imaginable - always in season.
Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net
“Get's everyone ready to buckle down for the winter,” said Karen Luziani, of Union Springs, who sold an assortment of seasonal baked goods Saturday.
Luziani has more than 300 cookbooks and bakes year-round. In the fall, she uses ingredients that are in season for apple pie, applesauce bread, pumpkin bread and chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate-coated sunflower seeds. It is among her favorite baking seasons, she said.
“It's the fall flavors - the pumpkin, the cinnamon,” she said.
About 100 miniature pumpkins, as well as an assortment of gourds, came to the Taste of Fall by way of a red pick-up truck from the Cayuga Pumpkin Barn.
In their second year of operation, the barn has fewer pumpkins than last year because of a cool July, but more visitors, said owner Rebecca Staehr.
“People are just excited to buy something local,” Staehr said.
No fall festival is complete without a solid supply of apple cider. Randi Wintamute sold jugs of the drink, as well as cider donuts and crates of fresh apples from the Apple Station, a local orchard.
“We look forward to fall,” Wintamute said. “That's our season.”
As far as apples go, fall is the only season there is.
The Apple Station stays open until the end of December, Wintamute said, to try to sell their entire harvest. But anything left over goes to compost piles, farmers' hungry pigs, or the woods, where deer dig them up from under the snow.
Among the many fall foods at the festival were offerings of Philly cheese steak wraps, chili and pizza. A mobile snack stand was chock-full of every sugar-coated, chocolate-covered, goo-fill candy imaginable - always in season.
Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net
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