Apple Picking Time...

It’s that time of year again – apple picking (later pumpkins & whatever else). I suppose our main motivation for picking apples is to make applesauce, which is one of Andrew’s favorites (it wasn’t one of mine until I tasted a batch Andrew once made and that definitely won me over).

We decided to go to Lynd’s Fruit Farm which is out in Pataskala, (about a 30 min drive). I had previously been there with my mom, sister and my sister’s friend, Amanda. I remember filling our bags until they were pretty much overflowing, so I reminded Andrew of that tradition – along with the tradition of eating one of the apples fresh off the tree (they encourage that).

Since the temperature is still very summer-like with an expected high of around 90 degrees, we decided to arrive sooner rather than later. Luckily we didn’t have too much competition as there were plenty of apples to go around (and plenty on the ground).

We started out with the Golden Delicious apples because they were pretty easy to distinguish from all of the red apples. We filled about half a bag before moving on to one of the other varieties. Although there was a blue ribbon to mark the location of one of the other kinds of apples, apparently there was another variety just mixed in with those, so we weren’t exactly sure what we were picking, but Andrew noticed the shape of the leaves was different between trees, so kudos for power of observation. I figured it didn’t matter anyway since they’ll probably all get mixed together when we make applesauce and whatever else.

Probably my favorite part was when we went to the farm store afterwards. I remember there being lots of good stuff inside and outside, so before we went in Andrew and I split an apple fritter. Among other things inside, I selected one of my favorite seasonal delights, a fry pie (strawberry rhubarb), a container of natural peanut butter, a red pepper (to cook with later in the week), and a jar of jam (Cinnamon Pear). Andrew selected a couple bags of flavored noodles and a package of bacon (which he later fried up and made himself a couple bacon buttys).

Andrew told me he expects one apple-related dessert every night now since we have like 10 pounds of apples rotting in our basement now. Lucky for him I have an extensive collection of recipes with a half a chapter in my dessert collection dedicated especially to apples, so I better get baking…

Have a good week everyone!