November 2, 2023: Fiery apple standards

In our very humble opinions, one of the best things about this time of year is the apples.Even a year of devastating frosts and floods couldn’t keep all of this years crop down. And that is to be celebrated for sure. And celebrate is exactly what Franklin County has done for this crop for nearly 30 years. Franklin County Cider Days happens each year on the first weekend of November, sharing all things apple with not just other western Mass folx, but people from all over the world. As the location that really revitalized cider in the US, keeping this weekend going is more than a labor of love, and we speak with some of the new faces taking over leadership for this event, Field Maloney of West County Cider, Brady Shearer of Pine Hill Orchards, and Ben Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farms, about the changes, workings, and constants of this festival Kaliis has dubbed “The Best Time of the Year”. Some of that cider will be transformed into a home remedy that has kept immune systems bolstered for ages. We chat with Kara Peters of Ahlbin’s Fire Cider about making a passion project into a business while keeping production and ingredients local. On the other end of that spectrum one the worst things about this time of year is having to change your clocks from Daylight Savings Time (that happens this weekend on Nov. 4th, everyone!). However there is a growing contingency of folx interested in keeping the clocks in one system, and it’s backed by science. We invite Dr. Karin Johnson to the studios to talk about the many benefits of keeping our clocks in Standard Time and the bill introduced by Rep. Puppalo to keep it that way in the Baystate.