Apples! Apples! Apples!

It's that time of year again! We spent the afternoon picking apples from our trees out back. I love the smell of fresh picked apples and we hit the mother load this year. This is always our fall tradition, although we picked them a bit earlier than we have in the past. The trees are really fruitful this year. I'm not sure if it was all the rain we had at the beginning of the summer or what, but the trees are exploding and they seemed to ripen much earlier than they have in past years. Some of the branches were getting too heavy and they were starting to break. We were also starting to notice a bunch of rotting apples on the ground and decided to pick them rather than chance missing our opportunity.

Hadley was a good helper, collecting all the bruised ones from the ground and filling her wagon so we could throw them in the compost. Wyatt helped by "sampling" the goods. This is always his self-appointed job. Dayven climbed the ladder to reach the really high ones while I steadied the ladder and held the collection basket. Everyone has a job! Every time he jostled the trees a bit, they'd come raining down. We managed to save some that fell, but many were too bruised. Hadley did a pretty good job of dodging them (since she was collecting right beneath us) but we did hear the occasional "Ow, mommy! An apple got me!" We should have put her bike helmet on her...

 

We made some deliveries to our friends around the neighborhood so they can enjoy them too. Now I have a lot of work to do. I've already been madly peeling, chopping, freezing and bagging to preserve them all for baking this winter. I am already getting sick of the process, but I know I'll appreciate having them this winter.

We made another trip to the Farmer's Market too - spices, cucumber, carrots, radish, swiss chard, spinach and homemade tzaitki sauce. yum! Our neighbors have also shared some zucchini and potatoes with us so we have quite an assortment of fresh produce right now. I love harvest time!