Apples to Apples

Apple picking on Saturday was quite a success. I ended up going w/ the plaid shirt as I talked about in this post and took everyone's advice and went totally feminine with my accessories- my tory burch reva's, gold bangles, and gold hoops.

I was pretty happy as far as all of that goes except it was super warm to be wearing flannel and jeans but since I had been thinking about this for a while I kept on with my original plan and tried to think cool thoughts. What can I say- I am willing to suffer for fashion.

Anyway, we went to Homestead Farm in Poolesville, MD. There were tons of families with children- next year I may need a child to borrow and drag along as all the kids looked like they were having so much fun and none of my friends (all 20 something young professionals) didn't want to feed the goats, play in the hay bales, or go on the tractor ride like I did. It's their loss...

Last year we went to the same farm and had an abundance of apples- my eyes were apparantly way out of touch with the amount of cooking that I realistically would do. This year we all set a limit for ourselves- 30 apples max. We shouldn't have worried- the crop was a bit sparse this year. There were several rows of Pink Lady apples (my faves) that weren't quite ripe enough but the Golden and Red Delicious apples were pretty tasty. My group- the single girls group as we referred to ourselves as (the others were either married, long term relationship, and just started dating)- actually threw in the towel and ended up going back to the beginning and bought a few bags of already picked apples to round out our meager offerings.
 

Whatever- no one will ever know the difference.

We capped the night off with a feast and a football game-- unfortunately only one was successful (UGA almost broke our hearts on Saturday... sigh). Everything was a little bit apple-y-- we had fruit/veggies and dip, apple bread, baked brie with apple butter (my contribution), apple/cheddar pizza, pulled pork in homemade tortilla bowls with apple relish, swordfish and apple skewers, veggie quinioa (the only non-apple item-- we needed a bit of a reprive), and apple-rum cake. Seriosuly- we all had to be rolled out of there.

Anyway, apple picking is a super fun activitiy that gets you outside and actively doing something. It was pretty affordable too- only $1 or so per pound, much better than what you get at the grocery store, not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that you picked them youself. Apples also are pretty nutritious from what I hear so as long as you don't cover them in sugar, put them in pastry, and bake them- it's a pretty healthy activity too.

My major tip would be to make sure that you hit the orchard at a good time for the variety of apples that you are looking for- otherwise you might have to cheat like we did and purchase some that have already been picked.

Happy fall!

-T

(p.s.- I have included some of my favorite apple specific pictures... a longer post will likely happen later with my pumpkin saga... consider that your warning to have tissues handy as it's pretty tragic)