Feeling as American as...

the apple pie I baked this evening!  

I was able to pick about 20 good apples from the apple tree in my back yard, the last left over from the raccoons, possums, squirrels and deer.  The dang squirrels would bite along the tops of the apples and leave them still in the tree, and I would try to pick one, to find it ruined.  
The apples are, by virtue of total lack of involvement by me, entirely organic apples.  I'm not sure what kind they are.  They're small, and look green, with a blush of red on the tops.  Not Granny Smiths, but quite tart.  

My darling daughter kept snatching cut pieces of apple as she "helped" me, and would pucker her mouth with delight as she chewed before trying to steal more.

I followed an old recipe from my mother's first cookbook:  To the Bride, and my pie came out warm and yummy.  My darling husband helped peel the apples, which would have browned instantly if not placed in lemon water.  This warmed my heart, because he is so very not a pie person.  But he, and my darling boys ate my pie, and liked it!  (Darling daughter was asleep by the time the pie cooled.)  DH added caramel sauce and ice cream to his, such wicked deliciousness.  It was also perfect with a bit of sharp cheddar, which I tried.

As I was getting the filling ready, I spoke on the phone with a longtime friend who became a farmer's wife last year around this time, and it was nice to have someone understand the utter delight I had in making pie from scratch from something that had grown on *my* land.

Next year, I shall not look at the wildlife with such delight as I did on Monday, when early in the morning, I saw a momma deer pulling apples off the tree for her baby fawn (and making apples rain down below).  On the ground, three bunnies hopped toward the fallen apples and munched happily, and a groundhog grabbed an apple, and raised up on his hind legs and ate it like a squirrel does nuts.  I looked out on Monday with perfect contentment that wildlife felt safe in my yard, and sighed at the Bambiesque scene at dawn.  But next year, I'm going to get my apples before they do!