Our trip yesterday to the farm was wonderful!  It was so full of food, and Fall, and friends that I couldn’t help but notice how the common theme for the day was (in my crazy creative mind) “Sweet Transformations.”

The most obvious transformation yesterday was the changing colors of the foliage.  As we drove south into southern Ohio, the landscapes we passed were breathtakingly beautiful with leaves of golden-yellow, tangy orange, vivid red, all shades of greens, plenty of brown, as well as deep crimson leaning to plum.  Spectacular!  What a miracle of nature for the dying leaves to transform to such gorgeous hues.

There was a big fall fest going on at the farm with plenty of guests, in addition to the family we knew in attendance.  Lots of people necessitates plenty of food and here’s where I bet I’ll get you salivating. 

Along one wall inside the barn, they had a deep fryer set up.  Are you familiar with those tubes of biscuit dough that you whack against the counter so it explodes open with biscuit dough bloating out?  Alright, so those biscuits are okay to bake and eat in a pinch, but I never buy them.  However, they had a whole herd of these tubes and it was awesome how they transformed them!  Peeling off a raw biscuit from the popped tube, they would stretch and poke a hole in the middle and then plop it into the fryer.  After the dough had fried to a lovely golden brown, it was taken out and put into a brown paper bag with lots of cinnamon sugar.  The kids (and adults) got to shake their donut in the bag, thus coating the piping hot goody with sweet stuff.  OMG! – imagine this crisp cool Fall day (okay – I was freezing and my toes were numb) and biting into this warm, cinnamony, sugary, fried piece of dough.  Oh lordy, it was good!  And amazing how some refrigerator biscuit dough could be changed and transformed into something so good.

As if that wasn’t good enough, they had a wood fire going on the gravel driveway.  Over the fire in a copper kettle they were making (a favorite of mine) kettle corn!  Shortening and popcorn kernels were put into the kettle.  Once things got bubbling hot and popping, some salt and a big scoop of sugar were added to the kettle and then stirred with a long wooden paddle.  Instant kettle corn!  Hot kettle corn! I couldn’t-eat-enough-of-it kettle corn.  Another sweet transformation!  Starting with the simple ingredients of corn kernels, shortening, salt, and sugar – apply heat – and presto/pop = kettle corn!

Ted and I joined the party by helping with the cider making.  Lisa had gotten ahold of about 5 bushels of apples for us.  You don’t need pretty apples for cider.  The apples she got were from neighboring farms.  A little bruised, a bit misshapen, some worm holes here and there.  We spent some time before festivities began with washing and sorting.  Some of those apples were plain old ugly.  One worm hole didn’t stop them from passing inspection.  Several worm holes and extensive bruising made us cut into the apple to check its quality a little more intimately.  We opening up some and found white, juicy apple.  Other apples had been taken over by worms and rot.  (those went to the reject wheelbarrow)  But the fascinating part is how you put all of these ugly, roughed-up apples into the cider press, and out comes the sweetest cider of all!  From ugly and bruised, the apples transformed through grinding and pressing into sweet cider.

Besides Ted’s mom and dad, there was Uncle John, Aunt Marilee, 4 cousins and their spouses, and 7 children of the cousins.  That’s 19 family members there for us to visit with!  The rest of the crowd of people were strangers to us.  But then something really neat happened.  First a little background information:  Last summer one of the cousins’ children had come up to visit us with three other friends.  We took these college-bound young people sailing and shared a great weekend with them.  So jump forward to the fall fest – and I didn’t expect to see any of them – they were off at college!  Then I saw a young girl walk in and I immediately said, “That’s Daniella’s sister!  She looks just like her!”  Daniella had been one of our weekend guests. I was correct!  After speaking to her, Ted and I next got to meet her parents and then there was another set of parents belonging to another one of our weekend guests – Grant – and then Grant showed up!  Suddenly this crowd of strangers transformed into friendly faces.  It was wonderful.

Spring is the time of year when people clean up, clear out, and shine things up.  Spring Cleaning!  I think Fall should be recognized as the season of transformations!  As the leaves unveil before us a change of color – maybe it’s time you turned over a new leaf!  (haha)  But seriously – could you sweeten up a little over some bitter area in your life?  Has your behavior been ugly on the outside?  Is it time to show the inner sweet side that you are capable of?

Change is inevitable.  Might as well embrace and welcome it!

You just might welcome a sweet transformation.

just Laurel

2 Corinthians 5:17B  The old has gone, the new is here!

Galations 6:15B  What counts is the new creation.