Apples, apples and more apples

Fall has quickly become one of my favorite seasons. In most part, it's because we're so close to half a dozen apple orchards and pumpkin farms.

Every year, we go to one of the busiest orchards in the Midwest, just 10 miles from our house, but this year, we went to two that are even closer to our house and much less busy. Very quaint and relaxing.

The first trip was with Liz's preschool. That was a bit chaotic with dozens of kids but still fun. We made an apple pie from that visit as well as a few apple crisps.

Then, we found an orchard that's been around for many years, but hasn't been a U-Pick for several years. This was the first time as a U-Pick in about 6 years. So, many people aren't aware that the orchard is open for U-pick business. We had the pick of the orchard and got 23 pounds at a bargain price.

I made more than two dozen apple dumplings from that haul and have frozen most of them. For now, we'll look at the preschool pictures and I'll post the other pics. in a few days.

Here's Liz waiting with the pals from preschool for the events to begin at the apple orchard. Before we picked apples, they spent a long time educating the kids about apples and of course, Johnny Appleseed.



Our little Happy Camper



It was interesting to watch the kids behavior. Liz got really restless waiting to pick apples. But during the learning sessions she was captivated. After each learning session, then she'd get bored waiting for the next activity. We were there almost two hours before we began picking apples. That's enough to test anyone's patience - particularly a 4-year-old!




Finally - picking an apple. There she is in action. She's carefully twisting to take the apple off the tree.



Yes, this is what she'd been waiting for all morning! One delicious bite of an apple...OK more than one bite.



Here's an apple pie that Liz and I made together. She's quite the excellent helper. Oddly enough, she didn't really like it that much, but Brian thought it was one of the best pies he's eaten. I'm not just saying that either. I only make 1 or 2 pies a year (if that) so I guess it's possible that you can get lucky and make an excellent pie once in awhile. I told him if I made another one tomorrow, it'd probably taste totally different.



Oddly enough, here's a picture that Liz took of me baking. Yes, Liz took the picture. Pretty impressive. Brian and I have a whole blog idea of pictures that she's taken. We'll get to that eventually, but for now, here's a good one from our little photog.