Celebrating Community at Cider Day in Troy Mills

This beautiful fall Saturday began at 85% humidity under overcast skies.  While the sun did shine brightly sometimes for the most part the skies were a canopy of moisture.  The flying insects loved it….especially as we began to press the apples.  The 6 varieties of apples produced a delicious abundance of cider!!

Twelve of us enjoyed the morning through the early afternoon all pitching in to clean and cut the apples, run them through a grinder, pressing the bag full of cut up apples, catching the cider in a jar and then throwing the pressed apples in the woods where the deer will enjoy the remains in days to come.

We took a break for lunch with hot dogs roasted over an open fire, fresh cider, and many home made dishes brought to make lunch a feast.  Jalapeno jelly over cream cheese and tortilla chips, three bean salad, a cheesy jalapeno cornbread dish, broccoli salad, fruit salads and more. Topped off with homemade cookies and chocolate oatmeal bars.  Getting hungry???

The joy though was the spirit of community we shared as we worked and had lunch together. Just natural conversation with people in a joint task on a Saturday morning.  Simple stuff that we are missing in our rush through life.  Yet, as I was reflecting the day after, the simple things like this are hard work.  The planning, the shopping, the baking, the time to travel to come, and the work of making cider.  Not easy. But the rewards of the time spent- great tasting cider and the community experienced make it worth the work.

We need to be more intentional as we think of community. It should be the habit of life yet we all struggle with it…. even before covid.  And since then we seem to have gotten used to isolation.  Not good.  An ancient Hebrew proverb states it this way: “a person rages against all wisdom in choosing to isolate themselves..”

Human beings are made for community.  Face to face-not Facebook.  Eye to eye-not an exchange of selfies.  Real emotions-not emojis.  Reality over virtual is the stuff of community that we long for.  Don’t let a virus lead you away from people.  Re-engage and let’s enjoy one another once again.