Where were the apples at Applefest?
| The devil was in the details…. |
I had never attended the annual Applefest hosted each autumn at the Grinter Place Historical Site at 1420 South 78th Street in Kansas City, Kansas. But you know, I’m always up for a cup of cold cider and an apple fritter, so last Saturday, I drove out to see what was going on in the oldest home in Wyandotte County as it hosted the 33rd annual Applefest.
There were many vendors scattered around the grounds of the historic property, including a Tupperware saleslady and a booth dispensing informational material from one of those Curves fitness clubs — and the usual assortment of bazaar-type fare: hand-crocheted baby clothes, gift items and gee-gaws, goat burgers.
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Goat burgers? Hell yes, two guys were grilling the goat patties — available with or without a slice of American cheese — and I was assured they were lean and healthy. I’ve eaten goat meat in Indian dishes, of course, but this was my first actual goat burger. Not bad, actually, although it was a little too lean for my taste.
What I couldn’t find was apples. I had missed the apple pie competition at 1 p.m., but I did wander into the historic home to see what was being offered at the bake sale. The pickings were slim: some overpriced fudge, a chocolate bundt cake and a cherry pie.
Over in the Grinter House gift shop, a little lady in a gingham gown was selling jars of apple butter and in little styrofoam bowls: slices of fresh apple splattered with caramel-flavored ice cream topping. “These are caramel apples,” the lady said solemnly. Well, if you say so, honey.
There wasn’t a drop of apple cider to be found, even though there was a demonstration — if you can call it that — of a kid dropping fresh apples into something that looked like a meat grinder and rotating a lever that ground up the apples into pulp; the juice was strained into a copper kettle. It was all for show. “You can’t actually drink that stuff,” an onlooker told me. “It’s not pasteurized.” You mean people didn’t drink apple juice before Louis Pasteur?
I did, after much searching, find a booth with two very nice women selling packaged slices of apple cake, apple fritters, apple bread and jars of hand-canned pickles. After debating between the cake and the fritters for about five minutes, I finally pulled out my wallet and bought … the pickles.
