Elijay Apple Festival

Today marked my first visit to the Georgia Apple Festival in Elijay. I've been curious about this one for years, but had never managed a visit before. Luckily, I discovered that my eating buddy, Diane, wanted to visit too, so we made the trip up today.

Since neither one of us had been before, we planned to be early. We stopped by Katie's for a quick breakfast (They are decently fast if you get there before the brunch crowd starts) and then headed up. That turned out to be a good idea. When we left around noon, the festival was starting to become very crowded. So if we go again next year, we'll plan for another early trip.

I was so full from breakfast (I always stuff my face at Katie's. I'm a sucker for anything fresh baked.) that I didn't sample any of the festival food. I think if I had been there much longer, I would have had to buy one of the lunch plates the Lions Club was peddling. Fried chicken, turnip greens, pinto beans and corn bread. It smelled divine. There were also booths selling the requisite funnel cakes and apple fritters, as well as hot cider, hot chocolate and hot tea. Perfect fare for a cool, late October morning.

I also foolishly did not bring my camera. Diane snapped a few pictures on hers, but all I took was this one on my phone. Looks delicious right? Don't eat it. It's really a candle. Seriously. They had all sorts of beautiful hand crafted candles made to look like cakes and pies. They were scented too. They had tons of great crafts like this for sale. I had a hard time not spending all my money.

Of course, we bought apples there. We had promised a friend we'd get her some fresh apple cider. We also bought locally grown apples. Diane got a half peck of Red Delicious. I got a half peck of Granny Smith and a half peck of Black Arkansas. The picture at the top of this post is about half of what I bought. After a bit of googling, I have discovered that Black Arkansas apples are perfect for pies, along with Granny Smith's. So you'll probably see a post about that next weekend.

All in all, I considered this to be a great trip. I bought some apples. I did some Christmas shopping. I enjoyed some time in the north Georgia mountains. I'd do it again.

I'll probably eat a fritter though. That is my one regret.