Pick a pail of apples

Its apple-picking season!

What fun! Some locals think its been a bit too warm to pick apples, but we enjoyed it so much, we've been twice!

Our first visit was to Belkins Farm (aka Lookout Farm), which claims to be the oldest continuously working farm in the US. The grounds were immense, very clean and full of fruit.

It was a cloudy Friday morning when we arrived which helped keep the crowds down. After purchasing our apple bags, we loaded up on the train which circled the massive orchard. At each stop, the conductor called out the apple varieties nearby. We opted for the stop near the playground, but found plenty of perfectly riped apples just a few steps down the aisle.

Peanut easily reached the dwarf apple trees with low hanging fruit. Tugging with all her might, she snatched a few. The books we read at the library about apple picking specifically said not to pull, rather to twist and lift, but we went for it anyway. Baby Tex bumped along in his stroller.

Our bags were quickly filled and we spent some time peeking at the animals and eating a small lunch. There were supposed to be food concessions there, but for some reason they were not open so be sure to bring your own!

Because Papa wanted to pick, too, we drove a bit further on Sunday to Tougas Farm. The weekend brought out the masses and by the time we wandered into the orchard around noon, many rows were picked clean! We still filled up our bags, and sampled some apple cider, apple cider doughnuts and apple crumble pie.

From our bounty of apples, papa and Peanut made two apple pies from scratch. And, last night, I made a batch of applesauce. Many more crispy and extremely flavorful apples await in the fridge. Perhaps next I'll make some oven-baked apples.....