An Apple a Day

 'Tis mountain apple season here!

And last Saturday, the kids and I drove to a little mountain town to take advantage of the harvest. It's been a tradition for years

And it was especially sweet to pass it down to the next generation this year

Sneaking a snack because apple picking is hard work

Her daddy taught her what to look for 

And she eagerly picked

and picked

 filling buckets

We picked 80# of Jonathon apples and a few Golden Wonders

 

In our opinion, the Jonathon apples make the best apple pies, baked apples, and apple sauce. I made baked apples the next day and the first batch, of many, of our favorite dehydrated apples will soon be ready

It was the best way to spend the day together

And hopefully the start of a tradition

 for this little monkey

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!!

'Tis Apple Season

 On Wednesday, I made a quick road trip with DH to haul some cattle to the sale barn (not the one where I work). 

It's 2 hours there. Two hours back. And we're back home by noon. Heck around here that means you can get in another 8 hours of working. Grin. Actually, the days are getting shorter and it's pretty darn dark by 7:30 these days. And that's just fine and dandy with me because most days, I'm pooped by then.

On Thursday, I popped back into the truck and headed to a little mountain town to meet up with my in-laws and bring home a box of Jonathon apples. I really wanted to pick them, but my in-laws are past the stage where they think that's fun so a box I got. Years ago it was an annual tradition to pick apples when we lived in the mountains:

I was tempted to get 2 boxes, but I knew I'd struggle to get them both put up in a timely manner with all of the things on our calendar at the moment. So one box will suffice...plus half a box of Honey Crisp Apples because those are DH's favorite. Dried apples are a fall favorite so that was the first order of business when I got back to the house:

I had men to feed on Friday as we were branding a small bunch (just 40 hd) so apple pie was a given for dessert:

And although there will be multiple batches of dried apples, the rest will be put up in the deep freeze for future apple pies, as well as a batch of apple sauce for the pantry shelves:

Maybe I should have gotten that 2nd box!

Special Delivery

Not only did the good Lord choose a great guy as my partner in this life, but He also threw in some pretty cool in-laws. On Friday they stopped by and dropped off 3 quilt ladders that my FIL made

along with a box of mountain Jonathon apples:

So, I'm back in the kitchen peeling and chopping and slicing:

We'll soon be munching on dried apples - a favorite treat

Some will also find their way into the deep freeze for future apple pies and crisps and others will be cooked down for applesauce, but the first 2 were today's dessert. It's hard to beat a good bakes apple on a cool Fall day:

There were no words...only murmurs of delight and sighs of contentment. Hopefully I'll find some time in the sewing room this week. After all, those wonderful quilt ladders really ought to be filled!

When Life Gives You Apples...

you spend a lot of time in the kitchen...coring, peeling, slicing, and dicing. However, this is my favorite time of the year and we've had days and weeks of amazing fall weather and apples rank high on the list of my favorite fall things. For years and years, when we lived in Texas, we had orchards at our finger tips

 and we made lots of apple picking trips.

  I  miss those days.

However, I fondly recall those memories when I am up to my elbows in apples. I made apple butter and apple sauce

and diced apples for apple cake:

and made batches and batches of dried apples.

This batch goes to our boy who was just deployed the other day:

 - I dry some plain and some with a dash of cinnamon and sugar. I have 8 trays for my dehydrator and the top 2 trays are always empty by the time the apples are ready and I can't blame it on the kids anymore. DH is like a kid when it comes to sneaking into the cookie jar...or dehydrator. I'm saving back a couple of apples for a pie - hard to beat a good homemade apple pie!

Its been a productive couple of days: