What a beautiful afternoon for apple picking! This is one of our favorite Fall activities. We went to Church in the morning and then the Kiwanis Chicken Bar-B-Que afterwards. After a wonderful lunch, that I did not have to cook or clean up, we were off to apple picking. The boys had been looking forward to it all week. We had a long week between preschool, things to do around the house, and our Firefighter had been gone a lot during the week with shifts. We were all looking forward to Sunday apple picking!
When we arrived at the apple orchard they were not too crowded so we went in line to pay for our ½ bushel bag. Once we paid for our bag we were instructed which apple trees were ready for apple picking and then we were off. The boys were so excited and were running ahead of me. When we found the section of trees that were ready for picking we all started picking the apples. We were picking the Empire apples. One of the trees that we found was really loaded with apples and it had a lot of apples down low so the boys were able to reach more than we needed.
The one part of apple picking that is difficult in the beginning of the apple picking season is trying to keep the boys from biting all of the apples, especially M, because they are so excited. He kept picking the apples off of the tree, taking a bite out of them and then would put them in the bag. I had to keep reminding him to stop and only eat one apple at a time, not bite every apple before putting it in the bag. I think that he was just so excited that he could not help himself!
After awhile the boys took a break to eat an apple while sitting under the apple tree. I took advantage of the quiet time and picked some of the larger apples that were up a bit higher on the tree. Once our bag was overflowing we took our apples back to the car and went back into the market to buy some goodies.
We ended up buying some fresh apple cider, a little blueberry pie and some apple cider donuts. Those donuts are the best and we look forward to them every year. They also sell 10 cent candy sticks so I usually let the boys each have one.
When we arrived back home with our purchases the boys were quite anxious to get started on the season’s first batch of applesauce. This year G can not only turn the apple peeler but he is able to put the apples on and take the core off all by himself, with my supervision of course. M likes to help G with this process. G hands M the peeled apple, M takes a bite out of it and then puts it in the bowl. When I make applesauce to give away to people I usually make it by myself after the boys are in bed or if they are out with our Firefighter, that way the apples have not all been bitten before they are put into the crockpot! However, when the applesauce is just for us I let the boys have fun with it.
As soon as I brought G home from preschool today he went right to the kitchen table and asked for the apples and peeler. Since we did not make that much applesauce last night I let him peel some more apples and it looks like we are going to have a large batch of applesauce today…or maybe I will make apple butter out if it instead
While I am very sorry to see summer go I really do enjoy the Fall season and all of its activities with my family. Hopefully the weather will continue to be nice and we can have many more apple picking days ahead of us this season!
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