Apple Season

 Last Saturday I drove up and met my in-laws outside of a little mountain town to get apples. DH wanted to come, but he's been working with his 2 colts and he needs to stay hooked up with them every day so I made a solo excursion. On the way back home, this little town was packed. This must be the place to eat

It's such a pretty drive - just over 2.5 hours and so green. I wanted to stop so many times and snap pictures, but the road is narrow and winding with no place to safely pull over. The orchard is about 8 miles outside of town. They are open for U-pick on the weekend

It was fun to see families picking among the rows 

and brought back fun memories of earlier apple picking days in Texas when our kidlets were younger

Such a pretty spot to spend a Saturday

Future pies!

My MIL makes the best apple pies and she swears by Jonathon Apples. 

The trees were loaded!

                                           

I picked a few, but we had a gathering to attend that evening so I came home with 1 box of Jonathon and 1 box of Honey Crisp. 

                                                  

Then we spent the evening celebrating our neighbors' 50th wedding anniversary

It takes 45 minutes to get to their house - they live even more remotely than we do, but they had a large group of friends and family on hand to commemorate this special occasion. They just pulled a flatbed next to the barn and instant stage for the band.

On Sunday, we recuperated because at our age, late nights require recuperation, but apple processing began

The Jonathon apples will be turned into applesauce, apple butter, apple crisps, apple cakes, and headed to the deep freeze for future apple pies. My dehydrator is working 24/7 on the Honey Crisps - dried apples are our favorite snack. I'll send both of the chiddlers a gallon bag and DH and I will probably inhale the rest. So currently, my little kitchen is busy.

But the first thing I made was baked apples with a scoop of ice cream - heavenly!!