Apple Picking

Do you know what I love about fall? Just about everything!!! In fact, I've yet to decide there's something I don't like about fall. Even though the leaves falling means a lot of extra blowing at work, it's totally worth it to have the cool weather, changing leaves, fall foods and flavors, wearing jackets, etc etc etc. I've been making pumpkin stuff for a month or two now (pumpkin muffins, mostly. They're so good, and you can eat them for breakfast!), but I hadn't done much with apples. Until this last week. I made apple crisp for Chase's birthday and it made me remember how much I LOVE apples and apple recipes. So I made a resolution that Chase and I must go apple picking!

We went up to the little town of Blue Ridge, GA, to the Mercier Orchards. It was rather packed, and there was a long line to pay, and another one for the tractors taking people up to the picking site. Totally worth it. It was a nice day, a bit on the warm side, but it had that smell of autumn in the air. It smells like falling leaves and chilly mornings and a bit of cinnamon. We had lots of fun climbing between rows of trees trying to find the perfect apples to pick. Cameo, fuji, sun crisp (my favorite!), mutzu... Just a few of the nice varieties we found. It was also very amusing to people watch. There were old couples, hippies, families with young kids, groups of teenage friends, all sorts of people. The best moment was when we were waiting in line for the tractor back to the barn and we were watching a little boy ahead of us.
 He was probably a year and a half old. He would take a bite of an apple, and then spit most of it out. Then he spotted an orange cone next to the line, and that seemed like the perfect spot of the bit of apple that had just come out of his mouth. Upon discovering that it was perfect, he took another bite and this time he leaned over and put his mouth to the cone and spit the bite in (I couldn't hold in my laugh at this). This was repeated two more times before he discovered another cone which soon received the same treatment. But where did it go? So he had to tip the cone over and inspect the bottom. His mother intercepted him as he tried to stuff what was left of his apple all the way in the cone. Little kids are just hilarious and I love watching them.

Here's some pictures of me and Chase at the orchard.

And yes, I'm wearing Oriental Trading sunglasses, because
they're all I had in the car and it was BRIGHT.