Photo by Tom Dils via Unsplash

What are your favorite parts of the fall season?

Growing up in the rolling hillsides of Vermont meant that I got to experience very green summers, full of lush grass under my bare feet. The trees would be bursting with greenery, the woods providing a darkly shaded and cool canopy to hike under. Summer was always welcome after a cold white winter, even more so after a brown and damp mud season. Summer has always been my favorite time of year, but there was always something so special and almost magical about a Vermont Fall.

Fall in Vermont really only lasts 2 months if you’re lucky. If there is not too much rain, you will end a second mud season (Yes, mud season happens twice a year) sometime between August 25th and September 5th. This gives you the rest of September through Halloween to enjoy the Fall. I say through Halloween because every year in the Underhill & Jericho area of Vermont, I’d be getting ready to dress up and go out trick or treating, or coming home from helping at a harvest fest…. and by the end of the night there would be snow flurries. I remember thinking that we dodged winter one year, and then waking up to a dusting of snow on the ground in the morning. The first snow always seems to land on Halloween.

As a kid and a teen, my favorite things about fall were:

  • Apple picking with friends at a local orchard.
  • Apple cider being available EVERYWHERE you go.
  • Apple cider donuts homemade by a friend (or their parents).
  • Taking friends and non-Vermonters to Cold Hollow Cider Mill.
  • Stopping by to get a seasonal pie at the Poorhouse Pies self service shed!
  • Father Francis Prive! He’d stop by for lunch at the deli at my parents country store right across the street from his Catholic Church. One fall, he taught my brother and I how to make donuts and gifted us our first donut dropper! The first batch of Apple Cider Donuts we ever made we took straight over to his home next to the church. We would often see him around town, he would always make time to talk to us kids and let us ask him all kinds of questions. Our family was not Catholic, but he holds a bright cheerful place in my heart.
  • Jumping in piles of colorful leaves with my siblings and my friends.
  • Trying to paint the scenery of the multicolor foliage on the hills.
  • The yearly chance to go to the Old Fashioned Harvest Market.
  • Attending the Corn Roast at Chamberlain Farms.
  • Making all kinds of yummy food with the neighbors and friends, usually with food from somebody’s garden.
  • Bonfires, roasting marshmallows.
  • Visiting graveyards and looking for family names that matched people who lived in town.
  • Hay rides.
  • Being scared silly at any of the Haunted Forests events.
  • Attending Church Harvest Fests.
  • Chili competitions.
  • Hiking in a cooler temp.
  • Camping in a cooler temp.
  • The brisk fall wind.
  • wearing layers in case it decides to warm up or suddenly get chilly.
  • Chopping that last little bit of wood before winter starts.

As you can see, there was always a lot to love about Fall in Vermont… And quite a few of them involve food, or at least- apples! I think there’s something to be said for certain seasons having their time to shine in each state. Fall in Vermont also brings lots of tourists to see the beautiful leaves, and a lot of the snowbirds vacate their residences and head down to Florida. It may be a short season (Winter is basically November 1st all the way through the beginning of April!), But fall in Vermont is one of the best times to be there and enjoy the state!

What’s your favorite season in the place you call home? Let me know in the comments below! I haven’t seen all the seasons in our new state so I’m still waiting to discover what season shines in Ohio.