A Day Spent Apple Picking

ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO SPEND A CRISP FALL DAY IS TO FIND YOUR LOCAL ORCHARD AND SPEND THE DAY PICKING APPLES!

It was a cool crisp fall day with just enough sunshine to make it enjoyable outside while strolling through an organic apple orchard picking with hubby.  Depending on where you’re from some will argue the best apples come from Michigan and I’m one of those someone’s. Only fresh apples will do for me thought. I’m not one that purchases them in the store long after their prime.

Growing up we had apple trees on our property. My Mom and Dad would pick them by the bushels and store them in our cold cellar all winter long. I always remember eating them fresh and my Mom baking apples pie with them as they started to wither. Now that I think back I don’t remember her making applesauce with them though. It’s funny the things I remember as a kid and when something like this comes to mind I wish my Mom was still alive to ask.

When I got older I noticed people ordering apple pie at restaurants with a slice of cheese on top. I’d never heard of such a thing. Now server it up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and I’m all in. I wonder where the idea of cheese atop ever started? I do like to eat apple slices and string cheese together so maybe it’s not as weird as I first thought.

Any way, Hubby and I knew the apple orchard would be packed the day we went and I’m not a big fan of crowds but I put my big girl pants on and made the best of it. We had to stand in a long line outside we purchased a bag for apples. They only have one size so if you want less too bad you still pay the one price and if you want to pick more than the bag with hold you have to purchase two. One-bag amounts to 20 pounds of apples and the cost was $13. I didn’t think that was bad. It was a day out getting exercise, enjoying the weather, and spending time with hubby so I chalked that up to a good day!

We were in search of Granny Smith apples, my hubby’s favorite and my favorite Honey Crisp. His variety was as at the farthest spot in the orchard to the west and mine was to the farthest spot to the south. We covered a lot of land that day and I snapped pictures all the way.

We go to the same orchard every year and I’ve been going there since I was a kid. A few years back they expanded and put in an organic section of the orchard and that’s where we pick. You don’t get pretty perfectly shaped apples like you do in the non-organic plot but I like knowing they don’t have pesticides sprayed on them. It seems the apples are always smaller too but that’s just fine we just pick more to fill our basket and when eating them if one isn’t’ enough we just have another.

My plan was to make apple chips with whatever wasn’t’ getting eaten but so far it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case. We’ve put a pretty heavy dent in our haul so far. And yes that photo is of me picking apples. I let hubby be in charge of the camera and he’s not much of a photographer but I wanted to share the pic with anyways.

This is sad to say but I normally am swatting at bees when we pick apples and this year I didn’t have to do that. I never noticed a bee. We did already have several frost here so that may be why but if that’ snot the case its scary that the bees weren’t there buzzing around the rotting apples. Has anyone else experience this?