After the strenuous rigors of summer work, the farmers and their families prepared for the gathering in and storing of the fruits, vegetables, corn and pumpkins for the winter months. Corn was to be husked and cribbed, fodder to be stored in the mows, coal to be hauled and wood cut and hauled from the woods. Every farm had their own orchard, as it was no trouble then to raise fruit unblemished and without being worm-eaten. Apples then had more flavor than apples of today. There was an orchard on the hill above our home, known as the Frantz orchard. In the summer on Sunday afternoons, we boys would gather to feast on these apples, as the Townsends, who owned the orchard, didn't care about the fruit as they had orchards nearer home. First would come the little red Early Harvest, then the Maidenblush, then the Greasy Pippin. As fall came on, we had the Rambo, Northern Spy, Baldwin and others. More than once my father and I would take the wagon up and pick our winter apples. It was an art to care for and store them. Some were placed in the cellar and the rest buried in the garden. This was done by first leveling the ground off for the pile of apples, and then the process of covering them for winter. The apples were made into as small pile as possible in a cone shape and then covered with straw. Then you started at the ground level and covered the straw with earth, forming it into a cone. The ground was made several inches deep and then covered with a shock of corn fodder. Along about the last of January, the apples from the cellar were eaten and you were ready for the ones in the garden, which always seemed to have attained a special flavor. In winter the farmers would nearly every night have a pan of apples to eat before going to bed. You opened the apple hole by digging into the side and removing the straw that covered the apples. You could take out enough for the night, wash and dry them, and, Oh Boy, did they taste good. Cabbage and turnips were buried in the same way. The apples that had fallen under the tree were picked up and washed, then taken to a cider mill to be made into cider. This was a delicious drink for a few days, then some vinegar "mother" was added from the old supply, and the entire barrel aged until is was good vinegar. We never needed to buy any at the store.