Apple Pickin'

Last Saturday was a perfect fall day for a family activity that I have wanted to do for some time now: apple picking. From several local orchards we chose one that practices sustainable farming with little or no spraying. This is especially important when there are little ones picking and eating the fruit. After walking out to the orchards, we were a bit disappointed to find many of the varieties rather picked over, and were beginning to think we would go home with empty bags. Then, we found a few trees with apples way out of reach. With a little circus act involving me balancing on Curtis's shoulders, I would pick the apples and hand them to him one at a time, who in turn would hand them to Noah, whose job it was to put (I say put, but it was actually more like throw) them in our bags while Isaac sat nearby, pulling grass and sampling the leaves. Noah kept saying, "Izat apple pickin'?" Yes, Noah, that is apple picking family style!

After making some slow progress, I resorted to just climbing the trees and handing the apples down. Soon our bags were filling up. At one point, Noah, who has recently become very good about using the potty at home independently got his first lesson on going to the bathroom in the great outdoors, proudly announcing "I peed on a tree!"

Before long, our bags were full. We picked 44 lbs of apples! (I should probably leave out the part of the story where Curtis dropped a 22 lb bag of apples on the floor after paying for them. Imagine the gasps from the lady checking us out as well as about 20 other customers waiting in line."You were going to use those for baking, right?" she said.) Just a couple hours after getting them home, I pulled a bubbly apple cobbler out of the oven. The next day we learned how to can, and made 7 quarts of applesauce. We still have about 20 lbs left that are destined to become apple pie filling. I think we could possibly consider canning my newest obsession. It must be true what they say about children eating foods that they otherwise might not if they are able to participate in harvesting them. Before our apple picking excursion, Noah would not eat raw apples. But now, when asked what he would like for lunch, he proudly says, "apple pickin'!"