Wednesday, October 05, 2016

Apple Picking 2016

 Sampling the apples

One of our favorite family traditions is apple picking. Where I grew up in northern North Dakota, we didn't have any apple orchards to go to. So when I had my own family that was something I really wanted to experience. This year we had to go to a different orchard because the u-pick trees at our favorite orchard were damaged by frost last spring. In searching for an alternative, I found that not all orchards offer u-pick, but I found that Deer Lake Orchard does thank goodness. They are actually not far from our regular orchard, so that was nice. It's a bit less fancy, but I liked that fact that it wasn't quite as crowded. 

 My daughter picking apples

We ended up picking a huge bag of Sweet 16 apples. At least I think they are Sweet 16, they could also be Harrelson. My only real criticism of this orchard is that they don't give you much guidance as to where the u-pick apples are and which is which. You pay for your bag up front in the store, and then they cashier gave very vague and confusing directions. We ended up wondering around for about 10 mins. before we finally found the u-pick, and then we still weren't sure whether we were picking Sweet 16 or Harrelson! Oh, well, they definitely taste great whatever they are!

 Fuzzy (sorry) shot of momma and baby apple

 Shop with more goodies

We also went back to the shop and purchased a bag of Honeycrisp apples and a jar of jam. Did you know that Honeycrisp apples were actually developed here at the University of Minnesota? They are my daughter's favorite. 




Do you ever go apple picking? What is your favorite variety of apple?
Bye for now!

7 comments:

Lindsey said...

What a fun day! I've never actually gone to an apple orchard to pick apples before (but I've always wanted to). My grandparents had a few apple trees in their yard that we would pick when we were kids. All your photos are amazing! :)

~Lindsey
http://have-clothes-will-travel.com/

Vix said...

Gorgeous photos, I'm loving those pumpkins in the wood crates!
I've no idea what the apples are that grow in our garden, the trees have been there for decades.
What do you do with your apples? xxx

Unknown said...

Thanks Lindsey! You were lucky to be able to apple pick at your grandparents, how cool! :)

Unknown said...

Thanks Vix! I always make an apple crisp/crumble. And sometimes I make apple sauce. I might try an apple pie this year too. :)

Olga Rani said...

I don't know names of apples at all. We used to have an apple tree in my yard, the apples were sour-sweet, perhaps my favorite type. Unfortunately the tree died for unknown reason. Beautiful photos, Laurie. Nice to know that you enjoyed this apple-picking.

Unknown said...

Thanks Olga! We tried growing a crabapple tree on our farm growing up, but it died too. They are tricky to grow. :)

Witchcrafted Life said...

How wonderfully lovely! We go apple and pumpkin picking each year, too. Doing so is one of my very favourite elements of the season. For at least two of the past four years that we've done so, it's been pouring rain though, so we didn't get outfit snaps in the moment on those days. Hopefully it will be a whole lot sunnier this year and we can - especially since I have a festive outfit I'm planning to wear just for that outing.

Many hugs,
♥ Jessica

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