You can feel the mood shift in the air.  The leaves are changing beautiful colors, the stifling heat finally eases up and is replaced by a cool breeze, and everyone is excited about fall festivals, cider drinks, hoodies, and ghostly decorations.

Every year I would pick out and carve a pumpkin and my mom would salt and bake the pumpkin seeds, but I always hated the taste of pumpkin.  I didn’t want anything to do with the pumpkin pies, lattes, or muffins.  It was very similar to my relationship with Indian Food or flossing.  I hated it at first, but then I finally came to the realization that the rest of the world isn’t crazy!  (well on this topic at least)

As I have matured I promised myself I would never rule anything out for good.  So I stepped up to the plate and forced myself to try more pumpkin foods and VOILA!  Now don’t get me wrong, there are still some terribly flavored pumpkin goods just like there is an occasional bad batch of chocolate cookies…but how that happens is beyond me.

About two weeks ago I decided to start using pumpkin to the best of its ability.  I baked up some Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread found on another blog, finished painting my pumpkin, my roommate decorated the house, and together we created fall magic.  I plan on continuing to take over the whole neighborhood with the smells of pumpkin muffins, pancakes, and cookies.

But to be honest, my favorite thing about fall is apple picking.  If you have never done it before you should look up the closest orchard and make a day out of it.  There is everything from fresh apple cider to donuts to corn mazes and beyond.  My favorite trip by far was when I was allowed to drive a four-wheeler through the orchard and grab the apples on the fly.  This may or may not have resulted in a vicious game of apple tag.

If you want it to feel like fall all you have to do is step foot on an orchard.  Now that I am in film school, I will mention that the following video could use more audio editing and some camera work, but it captures the exact feeling I have when I am walking through the trees.