Parke County Covered Bridge Festival

Neet Bridge

Every autumn, the leaves begin to change color and fall to the ground. I start to think about the all of the bonfires that we will gather around with our friends, along with the hot chocolate, popcorn balls and candied apples.

I also start planning our annual trip to the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival. Every year, thousands of people travel to central Indiana for this county-wide event. The county is full of beautiful historical covered bridges, surrounded by natures beautiful changing leaves. If you follow the routes marked with colored arrows, you can travel the countryside to see the breathtaking views of beautiful covered bridges.

This year, it was a chilly 35 degrees outside, along with a light mist. We even saw the occasional flurry while we were out about walking through the towns!

The Mansfield Bridge

Persimmon Pudding

Along with the covered bridges, there are numerous places to stop all over the county for a good bite to eat. My absolute favorite dessert to get while we are there is persimmon pudding! We arrived in Rockville only to be told that they no longer had it there. We ended up finding a couple vendors that sold persimmon pudding while we were in Bridgeton, thankfully! The persimmon pudding I had was not the same style that I normally get, although it was still delicious. It was more of a persimmon bread pudding. If you have persimmon trees at home you can easily make your own persimmon pudding, and I find it tastes even better from your own kitchen :)

In addition to the beautiful sites and yummy food, there are PLENTY of vendors. I normally don’t buy very much, but I really enjoy walking through the little towns to get a glimpse of what the local vendors have to offer. Chainsaw crafted sculptures, homemade crafts, etc. If you are ever in Central Indiana in October, be sure to check out the Covered Bridge Festival!

The Bridgeton Bridge (2009)

Do you have a favorite local event that you enjoy attending every year? Let me know about it in the comment section below! :)

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Choices, Choices...

After some research yesterday on different apple tree varieties, I believe I have narrowed it down. I narrowed it down to Enterprise, Jonafree, and Granny Smith apples because of their hardiness in my area and their strong disease resistance. The less chemicals I have to put on the trees the better for everyone!

I am also looking at some cherry trees, persimmon and*possibly* some peach trees. I LOVE peaches, and it would be great to have them straight from the farm! We didn't have great luck with them at our last place though, so I am a bit hesitant to spend the money on them.

After measuring the area we have set aside for the orchard, I found I have room for about 10 trees. At our house, apple trees would be the most used so they will make up the majority of the trees planted. They are great for homemade applesauce (the best!), home canned apple pie filling, and fresh pressed apple cider! I may decide to put the cherry trees in other places, just so I have more room for apple trees.

Leave me a comment with your favorite apple use and why! Recipes are always welcome :)