the orchard

A morning out picking apples- warm apple fritters, apple cider donuts, tractor rides, tractor fumes, large buckets, buzzing bees, eager hands, lots of reaching and even more eating.

Time at the orchard was well spent. In addition to picking apples, there was talk of what we would do with the apples. Eating the fruit itself, sure. But our talk somehow always led to making these gorgeous fruits into some sort of a dessert.

I was given a mini-lecture on the anatomy of the apple- the stem, the skin, the flesh, the seeds, the core, the "inside"- some words were more descriptive than others. But overall, it was evident... these kids know their apples!

I had to beg Elias to stop picking apples and plunking them into the 30 pound bucket I was collecting our harvest in. If we added anymore I was either going to lose my arm from carrying it or spend my entire week's food budget on apples. Could I justify that. I just might be able to.

That night was spent peeling, slicing and mixing our apples into some very delicious desserts. I was inspired by the apple fritters at the orchard and made these Apple Fritters (basically donuts, my first time ever making such a thing!). And then I searched for the perfect apple pie and knew I had found what I was looking for when I saw this Sour Cream Apple Pie.

Needless to say, two pies and dozens of apple fritters later, we are still loving our apples.