Pick Your Own Apples

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There’s nothing better than fresh apples picked right off the tree. They are so fresh and crisp to eat and so flavorful for baking. Not to mention, they will last so much longer in the fridge than grocery store apples.

There are several apple orchards all within an hour’s drive from my home. Last fall, my sister and I decided we were going to be adventurous. We decided to go to an orchard to pick apples. We picked Downey’s Farm because it was the closest one that offered picking times convenient to us.

The last time I had picked apples was when I was a kid and we used to sneak in our neighbor’s field and pick crab apples. Someone had to climb high up into the tree (not me!) and knock them down. Then the others would quickly grab up the best looking ones and hightail it out of there.

So I wasn’t sure exactly how this “Pick Your Own” apple thing worked. I was almost certain that they wouldn’t make us shimmy up the tree trunk into the branches like we did as kids. Would they?? Perhaps they would have ladders handy, you know…like propped up against the tree trunks to allow us to reach high up into the tree. Hmmm…something to think about on the 30 minute drive there.

We finally arrived at Downey’s Farm, parked the car and headed in to pick up our free bags for holding the apples that we picked. The lady who handed us the bags gave instructions for us to make our way over to the huge tractor-drawn wagon just behind the weighing shed and they would drive us out to the picking location. Once the wagon was mostly full of eager apple pickers (of various ages – from toddlers to seniors), the driver yelled “hang on everyone, this is gonna get bumpy!”.

He fired up the tractor and away we went. He wasn’t kidding…we were hanging on for dear life. The muddy tractor path was full of ruts and we were being jostled around. I was thinking to myself “Oh my, what I have I gotten myself into?” when we hit a particularly rough bump (felt like airplane turbulence!). Just then, a little boy (around five years old) sitting next to me, grabbed my arm. He looked up at me with such a huge smile, and yelled “THIS IS SO MUCH FUN MISS!”. That’s all it took to bring me back to my childhood and I was able to loosen up and enjoy the ride!

The orchard was set up in sections of about 3 to 5 rows of trees. Each type of apple had it’s own section and the driver stopped at each section long enough for passengers to hop off. My sister and I decided to start with the Macintosh section. We grabbed our bags and leaped gracefully off the wagon. (OK, OK…that’s a bit of poetic license on my part.) We actually stumbled off, doing our best not to face-plant onto the muddy tracks. A kind senior gentleman (who, to my chagrin, actually did dismount gracefully) reached out his hand and helped me down. Chivalry is not dead folks!

With relief, I saw that the trees were not the huge 30 foot tall apple trees of my youth. They were young trees, about 8 to 10 feet high. There actually were several ladders scattered throughout each section for those who wanted to pick from the tops of the trees, but most trees still had ample fruit hanging from the lower branches. I was able to pick enough without my feet ever leaving the ground!

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Each section had very detailed, but easy to follow, instructions on how to pick the apples without damaging the fruit or the tree. We followed those instructions perfectly and before too long, both my sister and I had each filled a huge bag with apples. So many apples!

We grabbed our bags and headed back to the pick-up location at the top of the section. Shortly, our chariot arrived. After hefting the very heavy bags of apples up into the wagon bed, we dropped to our seats with inelegant grunts and braced ourselves for the ride back. The bumpy track definitely wasn’t as fun without my little buddy and his huge smile.

We got back to the starting point, descended from the wagon and proceeded to the weighing station to see how much this little adventure was going to cost us. I plopped my bag upon the scales and waited. The nice lady there told me I owed her $17.35. Wow, I was expecting it to be much more than that. To buy this many apples in the grocery store, I probably would have spent almost $30. And they most certainly wouldn’t have been as fresh and beautiful!

We paid the price, loaded the car and hit the road…homeward bound! Since my sister was driving, I had lots of time to daydream about what I was going to do with my lovely haul. I’m bit of a muffin aficionado…so the very next morning we had fresh apple muffins for breakfast!

Here’s my favorite apple recipe if you want to try it out:

Apple Muffins

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Ingredients:

Muffins:
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 heaping cups peeled, cored and diced apples (I prepare apples once the wet and dry ingredients are ready to be combined) 

Topping:
​1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions:

These are also good baked in mini loaf pans following the same directions as above.