On a rather chilly October afternoon, we enjoyed picking some apples as a family. Goofball had mentioned that he wanted to pick apples, most likely after hearing discussions of friends at daycare. I had never gone before, so I did a little research. These farms have devised quite a profitable tactic of making customers pay premium apple prices, while doing all of the work! So, I did a little more research. Jackpot: a wild orchard found on Craigslist, where you could pick your own apples for $3.00 per bushel.
The little ones were interested in picking for a while. They climbed up the ladder with Daddy and placed the carefully-selected apples in small beach pails. They enthusiastically displayed “their” apples and asked for another turn. Eventually, as always happens, their attentions drifted and they began exploring the orchard. We could have kept going, but the air was growing colder and dense with the threat of precipitation. Not to mention the fact that the kids were running late for naptime. We gave the owner $10.00 for our buckets of apples (not really sure how many bushels we picked – I think at least three) and were able to spend a few hours outside, doing something new, and left with souvenirs.
Then came the question of what to do with our bounty. There are good things and bad things about apples from a wild orchard. While they are organic (no pesticides), the resulting apples are not very pretty. We decided that it was time to make applesauce. Mr. Smith and I spent many hours peeling and coring those apples, but it wasn’t too bad. We watched television, talked, and raced each other, and were finished before long. I borrowed a steam cooker and purchased some canning jars. The apple sauce wasn’t too difficult to make and can – definitely easier than I expected.
Snow now covers the ground and the applesauce, warmed up just a bit, tastes delicious. Goofball calls it “apple-pie applesauce” because it reminds him of the pie filling. We ended up with more than 15 jars of this organic, no preservative, tasty applesauce. In the process I learned how to can, we now have canning jars that we can reuse, and we spent valuable time together as a family. I’m even planning on giving some of the jars away as Christmas gifts, with fancy “Handpicked by . . . ” tags. A little research and creativity helped us have a fun family experience with continuing rewards. We can’t wait to do it again next year.
