Monday was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect, the drive was beautiful and we were together…well part of my family. Mr. B and I took D and S to pick apples and just drive and see the fall foliage, I do love the fall, however let me be clear I am not a fan of cold weather but fall is something else and being with family is even better.
We drove to Carter Mountain Orchard up at the top of a big hill outside Charlottesville, VA. The view was amazing, the weather was crisp but not freezing and there were apples and pumpkins everywhere. We were just going to go up there and buy some apples and then there we were at the top of the hill and Mr. B says to me, “do you want to go pick some?” Of course I am like heck yea and the kids did not oppose the idea, you do know in parent world that is a yes, right?
Here is the view from one side.
and here is the view from another side.
I decided while up there I would take the kids picture for the yearbook. My daughter was on board but D not so much, he is not a fan of having his picture taken, so next time we are somewhere I am going to take one that he likes better.
Here are a couple of the shots I took.
Not bad for an amateur and one who wasn’t so happy about the whole deal.
My favorite part about apple picking was always climbing the trees to get the good apples, however I am not as agile as I used to be but D was on hand to handle that task. I am very grateful for that, he did a great job.
S is much like me and not a fan of getting into the tree too far as there is always a possibility that a spider will be there but we did great, still reached in and just kept a very watchful eye on anything that moved.
Team effort to fill a bag of Staymen apples, which are so so yummy.
S and I just like pictures like this.
Here is the answer to how we ended up with 47 pounds of apples, yep 47. Do you know how long it will take me to process 47 pounds of apples? I do a VERY long time. Did I mention I have 50 pounds of tomatoes to process that I picked up from the farm because they were a deal, I processed 25 pounds of those this past weekend into sauce. I will be a very busy girl. Oh yes I forgot I have 3 more pie pumpkins to process and kale to turn into chips.
Just thought this was cool.
Hiking back to get some Granny Smith apples.
Processing our first bag, these were Fuji, I decided to just freeze these for apple pie, so a little sugar, flour, cinnamon and lemon juice and off to the freezer they went, however my bags are to big and they are taking a while to freeze. Lesson learned.
After apple picking we went into Charlottesville and walked through this Downtown Mall, very cool old buildings and some neat funky shops and good food. We hit this amazing restaurant call Citizen Burger, the meat was grassfed and local and AMAZING! There is nothing like good food served by friendly people in a very cool old building.
On our way home we stopped by my favorite place that I never get to go to because they are usually closed when I am out that way. We stopped by Yoder’s and I got some flour for baking and a few goodies
Then I spent the rest of the day, processing one bag of the apples, finishing my sauce and pureeing my first 3 pumpkins, phew. I feel very successful and proud, now to get the rest done.
Have a beautiful and happy day.
Dawn =)
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