An active cider mill and orchard is an amazing place to spend a fall afternoon. I spent many youthful hours deep in the countryside at a mill lovingly named Old McDonald’s Apple Orchard and Cider Mill.

My backyard was full of apple and cherry trees. I still remember the fragrance of them: green early apples, and, later in summer, the red Winesaps appeared. If we could beat the birds, bees, and worms to them, they made for some juicy offerings, and yes, some bellyaches for us greedier pickers. I was living the life of Jack and Jill as was shown in my first-grade reader.

A vivid memory at a very young age, maybe 7 or 8, happened in a forest. Let me back up, though. At age 6 my parents decided to move the family from Iowa to the Pacific Northwest. To my knowledge, we had never been there, or at least my brother and I had not. Both of my parents had lived in California as young adults, but we weren’t going there. We were headed to Oregon.