3 Cozy Ways to Celebrate International Eat an Apple Day

Spend a day at the Harvest Hallow Festival

Chewz Journal • Harvest Hallow

Come along to Harvest Hallow, where the orchards are full, the leaves are turning, and preparations for the Harvest Festival have officially begun. There are certain mornings in Harvest Hallow when you can tell something is happening before anyone says a word. Today was one of those mornings.

Baskets of apples lined the pathway into the village. Red ones. Green ones. Tiny ones. Enormous ones. A wagon creaked toward the festival grounds piled so high with apples that I was fairly certain the one sitting on top was going to make a run for it.

And right in the middle of it all was Brielle the Small Fork. She was standing beside a basket of apples, studying them very seriously. “Are you choosing one?” I asked. “Eventually,” she said.

Apparently, Harvest Festival preparations had collided with International Eat an Apple Day, and Brielle had been given an important job: help find some fun ways for everyone to enjoy the season's apple harvest. There was only one problem. Brielle wasn't quite sure she wanted to try all of them.

Then she picked up the smallest apple in the basket and smiled.

And just like that, our Apple Day adventure began.

1. Try an Apple You've Never Tried Before

Our first stop was the orchard.

There were apples everywhere, and although they all looked fairly similar from a distance, one bite told a completely different story. Some were sweet. Some were tart. Some were incredibly crisp. And one made Brielle scrunch up her entire face.

I wonder if she was happy she tried a sour one? Then she said that she thinks that the kids at the Harvest Festival should be able to choose three or four different varieties, cut into small pieces and then taste each one. The goal was not to love every bite because sometimes trying something new is enough. As the kids are tasting they can decide:

Which is the sweetest?

Which is the crunchiest?

Which is the most surprising?

And which would you choose again?

I told Brielle that this was an excellent idea for the festival and that we should add that as one of the main activities.

2. Make Harvest Hallow Apple Pie Cups

By mid-morning, the village kitchen smelled like cinnamon. That could only mean one thing. Apple Pie Cups.

These little no-bake treats have all the cozy flavours of apple pie without having to make an actual pie crust. A simple graham cracker base is topped with warm cinnamon apples and a spoonful of whipped cream or vanilla yogurt.

As I looked around at all the apple choices in front of me, Brielle was particularly interested in the assembly process. One spoonful of crumbs. One spoonful of apples and a little topping. Then she added another little topping, just to make sure the first topping was working properly.

Watching how easy these were to assemble, I decided that this would be a great activity to have in the outdoor kitchen during the festival. They were simple enough to make with kids and perfect to take home.

Harvest Hallow Tip: Let everyone take responsibility for one part of the recipe such as measuring, stirring, assembling or serving. The treat is yummy, but making it together is the best part.

3. Hold the Great Harvest Hallow Apple Crunch

After lunch, we found several baskets sitting outside Pumpkin & Pine.

There was a note attached:

FOR FESTIVAL TESTING

Naturally, we took this very seriously. We choose a few apples and investigated them using more than just taste. We looked at the colour, we smelled them, we felt the skin, we listen to the sound they made when we took a bite. Brielle suggested that when the kids come to the festival we should have an activity where they get to create their own taste testing categories, such as "Sweetest • Tartest • Crunchiest • Juiciest • Best Festival Apple".

Over the course of the day, our apple testing in Harvest Hallow became surprisingly competitive. Brielle insisted this was research.

Not every apple at the Harvest Festival has to become pie. That afternoon, the tables began filling with all kinds of apple creations. Apple slices tucked into sandwiches. Apples dipped into yogurt. Warm apples sprinkled with cinnamon. Apples paired with cheese and crackers. One of the stations that caught my eye was the apple experiment where the farmers asked the kids to create new recipes with just apples and a few ingredients. Things got very creative.

By late afternoon, something had changed in Harvest Hallow. The baskets that had filled the pathways that morning were slowly disappearing. Apples were being carried into kitchens. Added to festival tables. Tucked into baskets for neighbours. Shared between families.

And suddenly, International Eat an Apple Day didn't feel like it was really about eating an apple at all. It was about the harvest.

Food grown, gathered, prepared and shared.

The Harvest Festival Is Coming...

As the sun began to disappear behind the orchard, lanterns flickered on along the pathway. There were still boxes to unpack, tables to decorate and an enormous pile of pumpkins waiting for someone brave enough to deal with them. Harvest Hallow wasn't ready for the festival yet. But it was getting closer.

Happy International Eat an Apple Day from Harvest Hallow. What will you make?