Addendum to Apples!

Here it is Tuesday, and a quiet day alone in a house that has been bustling with humanity. We had a fairly relaxed week, now that volleyball is over, and band is winding down, enjoying the company of Huz's parents, trekking back and forth to the Pumpkin Show- three parades in all, football and halftime band, horsey activities and the kick off of the 4-H year.  The Saturday calendar actually only had two scheduled commitments, with Huz teaching an ultrasound shortcourse, and Middlest having a mid-day Girl Scout meeting. This left a wealth of time to plan an excursion. Or, at least 5 continuous hours of time for me, kids and inlaws... a good bit less for Huz, but still- this was special.
We decided to go for apples.
Now, when we moved to Mid America from the open space of Oklahoma, not finding a farm in the three days set aside for purchasing a house, we lived in TBC (The Big City). And, as the kids floor puzzle of the United States featured an apple on the state of Ohio, I had a notion that we could find apples in these here parts. When fall rolled around, after making inquiries to other preschool moms, we drove east of TBC to Lynd's Fruit Farm. What a joy! Rows upon rows of beautiful trees, ripe apples hanging ready for picking, nary a weed in sight. Certainly, not the only family to have the idea were weren't exactly alone, but it was like hunting a Christmas tree on a Saturday in late November- people were around.... but your trees were yours to pick. And the apples were amazing. We went back each year we lived in TBC.

I pulled this out of the scrapbook from 2002, our last fall in TBC. Youngest couldn't believe all the  food just lying around on the ground. And there are worse things to put in your mouth...

Then, in 2003, we moved to Cowfeathers. We wanted to pick apples again, as our aged apple trees on the farm were not stellar producers that year. Lynd's seemed awfully far away when we were already in the country. So, Huz made an Internet search and came up with a much closer apple picking farm, Holly Hills? I think the name was something like that. We changed it to "Poison Ivy Hills", as we were the only crazy ones picking apples in the whole orchard. The kids were ordered to stay sitting on the car to watch, while I (not allergic to P.I.) picked apples and tossed them over the toxic vine cloud for Huz to catch in a bag (definitely allergic to P.I.) We then went home to very sudsy long showers for all, and never went back. In fact, we have not been apple picking very often since then, having our own apples for sauce, and some nice farm stands in the area.

But 5 unscheduled hours calls for a major excursion, so we piled into Denty, and made our way northeast to Lynd's Fruit Farm once again. Wowza, I was stunned by the amount of people making the same trek. The farm now has a large pole barn where it sells produce, cider, candy, pumpkins and has a festival atmosphere. The large lot was full, and the building was to capacity, with lines like WalMart on December 24th. We made our way to the farthest part of the orchard (~385 acres) for the Winesaps and Goldrush apples ripe for the picking on trees. In no time we had 20 lbs of juicy apple perfection.

This is eldest. She can now reach apples at the top of the tree.

Middlest showing me a perfect Goldrush apple.

Youngest discovers the Winesap is a bit tarter than he had expected...

M-I-L gets a taste for Gold!

Then onto the pumpkin patches for happy orange globes waiting in the sunshine. Picking the right pumpkin takes time.

Good Golly, they're a lot bigger than in 2002.

We did stop at the crowded sales barn on our way out, and found Peachy! If'n you're wanting to know what Peachy is... I wrote about it in the Apple Blog of a week or two ago. If'n you're wanting to know how it tastes? It's just .....Yep.