The Apple & Cheese Festival

When we were considering the move to PA I did tons of Internet research on the area. What I found was that they had tons of festivals happening in the fall, so I made a list of "Things To Do in PA". On the top of my "must do" list was the Apple & Cheese Festival. It was last weekend and we had a blast. We have been kind-of disappointed that all of these festivals do not allow you to bring your dogs. Florida was really good about that! The dogs would have really loved this one, the weather was perfect-not too chilly and there would have been many treats snuck to them!
The festival was held on an old farmhouse. We knew this would be a big one when we saw that they had about 15 people working just the parking area! Once inside we found all kinds of homey demonstrations like broom making, blacksmith, apple pressing and more. There was an old one-room school house and the actual farmhouse that you could tour.



Then there were TONS of vendors. They were selling tons of crafts-lots of wood carving, fabric crafts and one booth that was knitting and felting. BUT the real joy was all the food vendors. Not only were there the lunch stuff like Philly cheese steaks and BBQ sandwiches there was grilled portobello and crab cakes! Very yummy. There were also booths that sold homemade pies, fudge, maple flavored cotton candy, caramel apples, local honey and so much more. THEN there were the wineries and local cheese makers! Who-boy! Those cheeses were mighty good. We bought mostly cheese and have been eating cheese every day since. It was our first time to sample cheese curds. Had NO idea what they were, but they were very fresh and mild tasting.




We stood in a long line for the "famous" Apple Dumpling Gang apple dumplings a'la mode! Well worth the wait and shortly after we got ours, they had to shut down 'cause they ran out! They were made by a local church and were fantastic!


This festival was held in Canton, which is about 35-40 minutes from our place. For me the best part of the festival was running into people we know! How cool is that? We ran into two people from Charles' work, two gals from Night & Day Cafe and a lady I met at the antique store in Mansfield. That makes me feel so great to see a familiar face and to get to stop and chit chat. When I first got up here I would see that happening all the time. People just seemed to know each other and would talk in lines at the store, on the sidewalks, at events...I thought folks were just so friendly and couldn't wait for that to be us! Well! We now know folks and stop and chat! I'm lovin' it!