Apple and Barley Adventures in the Appalachians

After a hike in the mountains the day before, the second day of our son Blake's visit includes some time in the valley. We are headed to the Apple Festival in the tiny town of Syria, Virginia. We were proud to find this obscure little festival tucked away down a little country road. We found that the secret is out, because there were traffic jams and thousands of other people at the festival too.

It was wall-to-wall crowds everywhere we looked, and long lines at all the food vendors. The festival runs every weekend in October, but the last two weekends have been soggy. So everyone showed up (with us) on the prettiest weekend of the month. We decided not to wait in the endless lines, but we did enjoy watching this guy stir up a big batch of apple butter. He was using an extra long wooden spoon to stir this batch that was bubbling and popping over an open fire.

A local blue grass band was playing, and we found an open space that was just big enough to two-step. We found that Blake is good at detouring traffic so that we didn't swing into any unsuspecting festival-goers while we danced. Instead of running away in shame, he even took a picture of us dancing.

We took a picture of the children's area at the apple festival. For just $2, youngsters could run and jump across the line of hay bales on the left, or climb the broken bales on the right. We have been doing this at family gatherings on the ranch for years. We now have proof that people will stand in long lines and pay to have that much fun.

Our favorite use of hay bales, however, was the teddy bear statue. With a little help, Denisa was hoisted up into the teddy bear palm to be in the picture with Blake. We're pretty sure she was the oldest kid taking a picture with the teddy bear today.

Since we're in the apple mood today, we also stopped by a local apple orchard. Most of these apples had been  harvested, and were available at the store by the peck or the bushel. But Blake had never been in an apple orchard before, so we walked up the hill to take a picture with the trees. Denisa is proud to say that she is battling her apple-addiction, and she didn't buy even one apple today.

Knowing that we love factory tours, Blake found a tour that was also down one of the little country roads in this area of northern Virginia. Denisa took a picture of the ingredients used at this factory. What could they be making?

That was barley in the first container. It is soaked in water to soften it, and then laid out in a 4-inch layer in their climate-controlled room. It is raked and stirred every few hours to keep it happy. Then it is taken to the next room, where it is dried while smoked with an apple and cherry wood fire. What could they be making here?


The next step includes large copper and stainless steel vats, and by-products that include barley-meal mash. But the real product is distilling out of those copper coils--160 proof whiskey.

We are on a whiskey factory tour, which also includes the barrel room where it is aged in oak barrels. They have a special process here that includes adding apple and cherry wood into the barrels to speed up the amber process, and give it a local flavor.

The final stage on the tour was the bottling and labeling. The top of each bottle is hand-dipped in wax and then spun to give the signature "C" on the top for the Copper Fox Distillery.

The company's spokes-cat was napping instead of greeting visitors. There was a sign close to her bed that warned, "PLEASE DO NOT pet the cat. She is 22 years old and may be cranky AND BITE." We let the sleeping cat lie.

We had a good time exploring everything from apples to barley in the foothills of the Appalachians with Blake this day. After a home-cooked meal at the motor home, we had an evening of playing games. But we had to go to bed on time because we will be leaving earlier than usual for more adventures tomorrow!