Absent Friends One and All

A tasting table at Clarkdale Farm in less fraught times (Cider Days 2016). ¶ 

The season's traditional gatherings of apple and cider enthusiasts are virtual this year, in Maine, Western Massachusetts, and Colorado.

The 2020 Great Maine Apple Day, which is offered by the Maine Organic Growers and Farmers Association in late October, has a resource page with links to presentations and other resources.

Maine apple mainstay John Bunker presents "tricks of the trade" in tracking down old apples. We await the next generation of apple sleuths!

Bunker, who normally sits at an "apple identification table" at the event, is also offering his services remotely this year.

The organizers of Franklin County Cider Days, which would normally be this weekend, offer in its place the 2020 Cider Trail, featuring tastings and other events at 16 cider locations.

Cider Days is Massachusetts's premier apple and cider event, and a memorable one.

In Colorado, the second annual Apple Symposium of the Boulder Apple Tree Project will be online this year, on December 4 3–6:30 PM Mountain time.

Speakers include apple sleuths from the Centennial State and from the great State of Maine. What is is about Maine and apples, anyway?

Thus do lovers of the pomaceous fruit celebrate our community, and the harvest, in the teeth of a global pandemic.

Wassail, all!