OTP versus ITP. Apparently, there is some great divide in this town, and the new food and dining editor better make sure she eats beyond I-285. Well, I went much farther recently in the hunt for food — and what a bonanza!
A 90-minute trek north through hill and dale led me to Ellijay in Gilmer County for the Georgia Apple Festival. Gilmer County is Georgia's apple capital, producing more than 250,000 bushels of apples annually in more than 30 varieties. A handful of area orchards were selling apples at the fair, with at least a dozen types in the offing, from standards like Braeburn, Golden Delicious and gala to new-to-me varieties such as Arkansas black, cameo and Mutsu.
An apple a day might keep the doctor away, but it’s hard not to indulge on sweet treats. Candy apples, apple bread, apple butter, apple fritters and apple hand pies were all there for the taking. If I were dishing out awards that day, the prize would have gone to the apple dumpling: a cored, peeled apple encased in a pie crust, baked, topped with a sugary glaze and served warm with cinnamon ice cream.
Although this annual ode to the fruit of fall has come and gone at the Ellijay Lions Club Fairground, and the U-pick season has ended, you can still get your fill of apples in Ellijay, otherwise known as "apple alley." Among apple houses, there are R&A Orchards, B.J. Reece Apple House and Aaron Family Orchards, just to name a few. Family fun abounds with tractor rides and other fall harvest festivities.
Ellijay is also home to wine country. The over-21 crowd can hit tasting rooms scattered around Ga. 515, in Ellijay and nearby towns. Among vineyards, there are Cartecay, Chateau Meichtry, Ellijay River, Engelheim and Fainting Goat. Life feels pretty darned good when you're sitting outdoors in view of a vineyard on a sloping hillside, the sun warm and soft, and live music in the air. Did we mention there could be a glass of wine or cider in hand?
Downtown Ellijay has a few restaurants, but the locavore's delight is Mountain Valley Farm, a working farm that's been family-owned and operated since 1840. Kids can get up close and personal with baby pigs, goats, bunnies, chickens and sheep, not to mention bigger beasts like a horse or milking cow.
And then there’s the farm store stocked with cuts of grass-fed, dry-aged beef and free-range heritage pork. Mountain Valley also carries fresh eggs from its pastured chickens, regional artisanal cheeses. From its own Jersey dairy cows, it offers raw milk (lawfully labeled “for pets”) and the most divine, real butter I’ve tasted this side of the Atlantic Ocean, and sold in 2-pound chunks.
Mountain Valley doesn’t sell wholesale, so you can’t taste these products at an Atlanta-area restaurant. You’ve got to trek there. For the serious home cook, it is worth the drive. It’s a drive made even better when apple lovers of all ages and addicts of fall scenery pile into the car.
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