Our Trip to the Apple Orchard... in Words and Pictures

The most delicious apples I've ever had
(this year's Yellow Delicious)

Four years ago, cousin Julie discovered what I believe is a hidden gem about an hour west of where we live.  It's an apple orchard, very manageable to navigate and open free to the public.  We went with Julie that year and have made it a point to go every year since.  It's become a late-September/early-October tradition, depending upon weather and other plans; and today was a perfect day to make our 2015 trek there. 

There is nothing terribly fancy about this orchard like the

Corner of haystack maze (with Ella and Cal
on top -- this is probably the Leatherkids'
favorite feature of this orchard

stuff you'll find at some of the other well-advertised, pay-to-get-in, monster-sized pumpkin patches (and I assume apple orchards) in the area, but it really doesn't need to be fancy as far as the Leatherkids are concerned. Our orchard has a small haystack maze that kids most enjoy by running on top of and jumping across the haystacks.  Our orchard has a donkey and a couple of goats, two unusual animal types (that sometimes make some interesting noises) that kids find intriguing. Our orchard sells the tastiest, homemade apple cider donuts as well as some cider and homemade fruit pies which you can either buy and take home or just drink and eat at our orchard.  Our orchard has pumpkins, raspberries and, of course, apples... lots of apples.

Ella and me on the hayride --
I wish the ride had been
longer because I did enjoy
this cuddle time with her

There are many types of apples at our orchard, all reachable either by foot on a short hike or by hayride (pulled by a tractor), which most people choose to ride.  You don't have to actually purchase anything to enjoy our orchard and eat some apples; but we generally do buy a bag to do the "u-pick," (which, as its name suggests, means we get to pick our own apples).  Today, with our 10-pound-capacity bag in Dan's pocket, we hopped on the trailer with blocks of hay as seats and sat down with a few other families for our brief ride to the apple trees.  Before we left, the older gentleman driving the tractor gave us his schpeel about what apples were in season and where we'd find them.  Our choices today were pretty much the "Delicious" variety, both Yellow and Red.

Cal getting some height from
Daddy to reach a good-looking
apple higher in the tree

The tractor dropped us off at the in-season trees and we proceeded to pick and taste.  Ella and I started with the Red Delicious, which were just okay.  As we finished our first apples, we walked a few steps to meet up with Dan and Cal at the Yellow Delicious (maybe 20 steps away).  I tossed my red core and picked a yellow.  With the first bite I declared that it was the most delicious apple I'd ever tasted (I was not kidding).  "I'd eat apples all the time if I could count on them being this delicious," I declared.  "We're going to get only these, right?"  Dan agreed.

Cal eating his second apple
from the side of his mouth

Ella eating her first yellow
apple with her right canine
doing most of the hard work

I think it's so excellent to be able to pick an apple and just eat it right off the tree, so I took full advantage of being at the orchard where we can do this and, at the risk of pooping a lot later, ate five of them. I also enjoy watching the Leatherkids do it.  This year was a particularly fun watch because both are missing front teeth (Ella two, Cal one), which, I figure are usually pretty important apple-eating tools.  Somehow they managed and ate a few apples they picked directly from the trees themselves.

The Leatherkids with their
pumpkins - my sister would
be proud of Cal for picking
that pumkin

We filled our bag quickly and started walking to the pumpkin patch we had passed on our way to the apple trees.  It was a short walk and the right direction for making our way back to the barn where we had started.  Last year, we missed apple-purchasing season but still went to this orchard to pick a pumpkin.  At $.35/pound and just fun to choose a pumpkin from the vine instead of a shelf in a grocery store, we had to get some pumpkins at our orchard.  We really didn't spend much time in the pumpkin patch.  Dan found one really quickly (it was a nice pumpkin, even from a distance).  Ella found one that she could carry -- it had a good shape and the unique characteristic of a long stem.  I really have no words for the pumpkin Cal chose.  Small?  Cute?  Nasty green colored?  Perhaps subconsciously he's acting on some deep-rooted Reiter genes that "feel sorry" for unappealing or flawed inanimate objects and purchase them for that reason alone.  Or perhaps he's just a goof.

View of the barn from the pumpkin patch

Rasperry patch near the barn; Dan and Ella are on the path (not sure
where Cal is)

View of the apple trees from the start of the path that led us there

Pumpkins in hand, we started heading back to the barn to pay for our pumpkins and spend some time on the haystack maze. It was too beautiful a day and too fantastic of scenery not to take some pictures, so I fell behind the other three pretty quickly. What I like most about what I was seeing was that I could really see fall starting to take effect.  The tips of trees were starting to yellow and red, crops in the distance were brown, some of the leaves on cornstalks were crisp and reddish brown.  The contrast of this against the blue sky was striking, and I truly enjoyed taking it all in.

We paid for our pumpkins -- less than 9 bucks for all three, which some might say we should have gotten Cal's for free.  Dan went to get some apple cider donuts and the kids and I headed to the haystack maze to play for a bit... well, the Leatherkids played while I took it all in.  I don't even know how long we were there, but the Leatherkids took a break only to eat a cider donut which Daddy had offered up to them once he had arrived at the haystack maze himself. He helped an older couple get their three grandchildren to sit still and smile for a picture and I helped a kid get his leg out of a hole... and then helped a bunch of kids fill that hole with hay.

One attempt at a nice picture during
round 1 -- Ella just wouldn't smile

Hay playtime over, we bribed the kids to take a few nice pictures before we left -- if they cooperated, they'd get another highly-coveted donut.  We found a good background for this picture by the barn only to run into a stubborn Ella who didn't want to sit and/or smile for a picture and really just wanted the donut.  After several failed attempts, we quit, gave Cal a donut and watched Ella cry over not getting one.

Somehow, I managed to get myself in the
picture Ella was taking of me

Dan and Cal went inside to get something to drink, and I sat with Ella outside.  We talked about taking pictures, and I let her try to take one herself.  She knows how to use a smartphone camera; however, this more traditional (Nikon) camera was new to her.  Look through the hole? Push a button halfway to focus and then all the way to take?  As she awkwardly held up the camera and did what I told her to take the picture, I maneuvered myself into what I thought was the frame of the picture... and it worked.

My toothless Leatherkids, all smiles

Somehow, this little exercise calmed Ella down about the whole smile-for-a-picture thing; so when Dan and Cal emerged from buying water (and a slice of apple pie a la mode), she was gung-ho to take a picture and get that apple cider donut.

You know how something goes well one time and you expect that that is a repeatable thing given the same surroundings and/or circumstances?  That's how I felt about this picture. I've taken so many good pictures of the kids at our orchard that I thought this year would be no different.  I assume that in the bundle of pictures I took will be a gem that I'll use for our Christmas card later this year.  I don't know if I have it, but I'm pleased with the pictures I took anyway.  Good memories.

Dan and Cal, post apple pie a la mode

So after Ella cooperated with the last set of pictures, we headed to a table where she enjoyed her well-earned apple cider donut and Cal and Dan enjoyed their apple pie a la mode (apple pie?  yuck... I still can't believe my family thought I liked that as an alternative to pumpkin pie, which they knew I didn't like, all those Thanksgivings).

So this year's trip to our apple orchard is done.  Check that off.  Now we have a bunch of delicious apples to eat the next couple of weeks and three pumpkins to decorate, too.