A Visit to the Apple Orchard

It's fall. Finally.

The leaves are starting to turn, the evenings are cool (darn right cold sometimes) and the light has that special slant in the afternoon that just makes me happy.

It's a crazy time of year with the start of school, but we are settling in to our new "normal". This weekend we decided to make an impromptu visit to the apple orchard. Just hearing the word "orchard" put a smile on everyone's face.

We got to the orchard and started to check out the sites. This orchard has a few of the typical things...wagon rides through the orchard pulled by tractors, a few obligatory barn cats, a calf, a turkey, an ostrich...yes, an ostrich! :) After peeking around a bit we purchased our bushel bag and tromped out into the orchard. This orchard doesn't have a large selection of apple varieties, but they had some of the classics. Andy requested Golden Delicious and I wanted to find a few on the tarter side.

Davin and Abby were very helpful in picking and the trees obliged with loaded trees. Andy was helpful in coaching the kids..."Big apples, not the tiny ones!" :) He was also our resident sampler...though we all had a taste of a couple crispy apples...how could you resist apples fresh from the tree and slightly warm from the sun. Sooooo good!

After our bag was full to the point of bursting, we had to reward ourselves with cider and donuts. There is something special about cider donuts...I love that they are dense and the cinnamon sugar is perfect with a cup of cold cider. Funny thing though, I only like cider cold at the orchard. After that, I prefer my cider warmed up with a dash of cinnamon.

All was good, and we were enjoying ourselves very much until the kids discovered how much the bees were enjoying the cider and donuts as well. They both get nervous around bees...I wouldn't say an all out fear like some people have, but a bee buzzing around their cup put them in a bit of a sour mood and they were ready to go home. I think they were also a little tired of all my picture taking:

Once we got home, Abby put some of our apples on display on the dining room table, which looked very festive. We made some homemade apple sauce and this morning each of them asked to bring an apple in for their teachers. They boarded the bus, proudly holding their apple to prevent it from getting bruised. :)

By the way, did you notice that Andy and I are wearing rival shirts? :) We are a split household...he went to the University of Michigan and I went to Michigan State University. Turned out that we also went to rival high schools...obviously it was a match that was meant to be! lol Now, to be honest, I didn't go to MSU for the football team and don't really follow how the team is doing, but I'm still a Spartan and have to show my team spirit for my school - Go Green! :)

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