Fruit Baskets Make a Fall Festival Complete

This is the time of year when leaves change. The countryside is ablaze with color: vivid reds, vibrant oranges, mellow golds. Farmers are harvesting their crops of soy beans and corn. Freshly picked fields are plowed over, causing the rich, dark soil to form a contrasting groundcover color to the changing leaves. The temperatures are cooler. The nights are clearer. The moon seems bigger and brighter during this time of year. Fall Season is here.

Each Fall Season, I host an outdoor party...a Fall Festival, of sorts. It has become tradition with my friends and family, who eagerly anticipate it each year. I have a blazing bonfire, which provides warmth and illuminates the darkness. The fragrance of wood smoke permeates the air. I decorate with simple bales of straw and place pumpkins and pots of yellow and orange chrysanthemums strategically around, creating the perfect backdrop for photos. We hook our field wagon to the tractor for a hay ride through our plowed farm fields, filling it with loose straw...perfect for throwing or snuggling against the cold. Other activities include picking a pumpkin from our patch and carving it into a jack-o-lantern or painting it with a funny face.

Refreshments are kept very simple. I know my friends and family don't want me to go to a lot of bother with them. They enjoy eating from Fruit Baskets. Fruit Baskets are very easy for me, as a hostess, to serve. I simply place several of them, brimming with fresh, seasonal fruit, all over the place. They are convenient for my guests to serve themselves because they can simply select the pieces of fruit they desire and start munching.

In the past, I have filled huge wicker baskets with locally grown fruits such as apples, pears, and grapes. I have also kept the fruits separated, according to basket: one basket with apples; one with pears; one with grapes. I have found it to be more convenient to mix the fruits, making the Fruit Baskets more colorful and appetizing. This year, I have opted to add a few more fruits for color and variety. I will add several oranges for their color and Vitamin C quality. I have also decided to include potassium-rich bananas to the apples, pears, and grapes. I believe these changes will be appreciated by my guests. Clean-up is practically non-existent, as peelings and cores can simply be discarded into the bonfire, on top of the compost pile, or tossed into the fields for the field mice to enjoy.

The evening customarily ends with all of us huddled closely around the burning embers of the bonfire, telling ghost stories or playing the "Killer Wink" game, contentedly munching on our healthy snack of fresh, juicy fruit from the Fruit Baskets. No wonder my "Fall Festival" is excitedly anticipated each year. What could be more enjoyable than spending time with friends and family and enjoying the bounties of our lives...Fall Fruit Baskets?





A fruit basket can even make an ideal gift for those distant loved ones. Laura Weaver recommends www.99giftbaskets.us.