Apple Picking

On Saturday, my wonderful husband and I went apple picking. Now, to tell you the truth, I spent the last eleven years growing up in and around rural Maryland. Who would have guessed I would miss the rolling hills and icredible landscape so much? Fall is making me nostalgic, however, for apples, crisp weather, corn maizes, hay rides, and autumn leaves. I heard about this place on the radio where the city folk can be farmsy for the day and pick their own apples, so I was way excited.

It turns out that convincing Brandon was not hard at all either. It seems he too was aching for our old home traditions. So, even though he had tons of work to finish for seminary, we drove forty-five minutes east to Eckert's Orchard.

It was quite a change from Maryland as all the city elite were dressed to the nines to spend the day in the orchard whileI was debating between old jeans and overalls. Brandon and I paid our entrance fee and low and behold, a free haunted hay ride was included with our admission! Now I was really psyched.

Before we headed to the trees, we visited some of the farm attractions. For instance, there was the homemade kettle corn, a must have, and Apple Knockers, a lovely musical created by the farm kids about Jonathan Delicious and Mary Golden. (i.e. Jonathan and Golden Delicious Apples.) Then, of course, there was pig racing and a very rudimentary corn maize and a Jack-O-Launcher (basically a pumpkin cannon).

After making the rounds, we made our way to the apple-picking tractor shuttle. Unfortunately, all the Jonathan apples were gone but we were able to get some Red and Golden Delicious. But it is how we got the apples that makes this story so interesting.

Apparently, it is a little late in the year for apples, at least at this popular farm, and all of the trees were bare except for the very top. Brandon decided to make an adventure out of our day and climbed the trees. He began pulling the apples off the branches and throwing the rest down to me.

After one bag was entirely full of Golden Delicious, I suggested that we move onto red.

“No!” said Brandon. “We don't have enough. We are picking for two other people, so we need more!”

It was true, we were supposed to pick a couple pounds for Brandon's cousins and another couple at our church. So we filled another full bag with Golden Delicious and a third with Red Delicious.

Burdened with our three bags of apples, we made our way to the checkout counter to see the damage. My husband managed to throw down 29.3 pounds of apples!!! No joke.

“Brandon, what are we going to do with all these apples?! They are going to go bad before we have a chance to finish them!”

“You will just have to do a lot of baking!”

He has a way with words.

Anyway, we proceeded to the car to deposit the load and then we stuck around for the “haunted” hayride which was pretty tame except for the scary chainsaw guy jumping out of the cornfields.

On Sunday, following our orchard day, I decided that I had to try to make an apple pie to use up some of the apples. I had never made one before!! So, I did as any other newlywed girl does and called my mom. After an hour of explanation, I spent two hours attempting to make the pie. It went into the oven and actually came out quite edible. In fact, I am rather proud of my attempt. I am sure with practice, I will continue to improve.

One thing is for sure, though: nothing beats mom's.