Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Tuesday, September 9, 2008 Apple Picking

note: This is the third in a series of "catching-up" posts...I'm posting them chronologically starting with the oldest and dating them in the titles.

After leaving Ithaca, we drove to a pick-your-own apple orchard about half an hour down the road. We picked up a 1/2 bushel bag for apples and a box for peaches, as well as a map of the orchard with the currently-ripe varieties marked, then we were on our way!

Our first stop was at the Burgundy apples. Here Jordan inspects the apples that had already fallen from the trees.


Our map/guide said to feel free to sample the fruit, so we did! The Burgundy apples ended up being our favorites.


Jonathan in a mid-pick pose...


Jordan stretching to reach the perfect apple...


Joey is usually happiest when he is eating...


Here are some of us wandering between the rows of trees. I was surprised at how short the trees were. I don't know why, but for some reason I expected apple trees to be much bigger. Of course, that would make picking more difficult!


Joey picking an apple...


Look what I picked!


Jeremy picked a very large apple that he was quite proud of. Jeremy had a definite advantage...he's much taller than the rest of us! A lot of the lower branches were pretty picked over, but he found some beauties farther up than we could reach!


Jonathan holds a branch down so that Jordan can reach an apple...


Joshua had to sit out while we were picking the Burgundies. I think he's reading his history book here.


On the way to the next type, we saw this sign and had to stop for pictures. Jonathan was quite pleased to find that there was a type of apple with his name! They weren't ripe yet, so we moved on.


Josiah hanging out in the car...


I think these were the Jonamacs. There was a ladder left against one of the trees. Ladders are a Joey-magnet, so we spent our time here trying to keep him off of it. Of course, we took pictures first...


Daddy and most of his boys!


Joshua finally gets to pick some apples...


Look, a tiny, cute little apple!


We had to let Josiah "pick" apples, too!


Hmmm, now what do I do with this?


We weren't really thrilled with the taste of the Jonamacs, so we moved on rather quickly to the next area, which was peaches.


Jeremy in a peach tree...


Jordan in a peach tree...


A branch laden with yummy peaches!


Here we are in the Macintosh section. These trees are considerably bigger than the others we'd picked from so far, and the boys also enjoyed climbing them!
Jonathan in a tree...


Here's the "road" we were driving down lined with Macintosh apple trees.


Lots of apples!


Turns out Jordan is a tree hugger. Who knew?


We filled our bag and went back to the shop at the entrance to pay. Apparently we hadn't snacked on enough apples, because we still had room to try some cider donuts washed down with cups of freshly pressed apple cider. Yummy!!

When we left, we drove through this really quaint old covered bridge.


This has absolutely nothing to do with apple picking, but we couldn't resist stopping to take a picture of this when we drove past. Yes, it's a vending machine for live bait. I am amazed that such a thing exists and I've never seen one before...this has "Texas" written all over it!

1 comment:

Stefanie said...

Live bait for what? Do apples actually eat crickets? Who knew!!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...