Apple Picking

As the end of summer draws near it can be hard for me to let go of beach days, warm evenings, and an overall more “carefree” lifestyle.  Maybe you can relate. One thing that I have found about having kids though, is that the seasons take on a whole new meaning. Rather than mourning the loss of things we cannot do as seasons come to a close, I find it exciting to embrace the things we can do in the next season. One of the things that brightens my mind about autumn is Apple Picking!

Apple picking isn’t something I grew up doing, but over the past few years has definitely become a highlight activity for me. The first time we went, we went to a local place that had many things for our children to do in addition to apple picking…train rides, corn maze, sand hills, and more. It was an incredible day! But it really was an investment of time and money that we would only prefer to do once per year.

I decided later last fall to see if we could support a local farm and just go pick some apples. I knew it would cost less and take less time, allowing us to go more often. We found a beautiful place not far from out home with about 9 trees and beautiful apples. I took the twins there last year, but this year returned with all three boys.

On the way there this week, we talked about ways that we can tell if an apple is ready to be picked, how to check any apples that are on the ground, and also things that we could do with the apples once we picked them. The kids were beyond excited!

When we arrived we found out that some apple trees were ready and others were not. Each tree was labelled with its variety and I showed the twins what letters to look for on the signs to know if it was a tree they could pull from or not. Then they went to town! They jumped to reach, they pointed apples out to each other, they inspected the ones already on the ground, and they checked each sign to know if it was “a yes tree or not”.

Rhett was a little more apprehensive. He approached the trees with caution and preferred to stand and watch his brothers for the most part. He let my mom and I lift him to pick a few which was precious.

Once the kids realized they could eat the apples, well that just made their day! Pretty sure they are at least two each over the course of time we were there and the trip home.

Once home, we talked about how some apples were better for eating and some for baking. I let each of them choose what they want to do with the baking apples. Wes wants to make baked apples, Clay wants to make an apple cake, and Rhett wants to make apple muffins…no surprise as he is truly my “muffin man”.

Last night I researched apple cake recipes and they all have a TON of sugar, so I am working on developing my own and will share once I have a good product. I already have a healthy apple muffin recipe that we love and will be sharing that in the coming days.

In the mean time, here are a few more pictures from our adventure this week.

Hope you enjoy!