Apples, Apples, Apples

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day. It was sunny and the air was crisp, a perfect day for apple picking. We took a drive to Honey Pot Hill Farms in Stow, MA for our Saturday date. We went to this particular orchard once before for apple picking and liked that they charged by the basket instead of by the pound. If I wanted to pay by the pound, I could go to the grocery store. The drive out was very nice, we commented on how nice the houses in the 'burbs look and agreed that we are still not ready to pull that trigger. As we got closer to the farm, we were in a long line of traffic of other apple pickers. We decided to park on a side street and walk a quarter mile to the farm. As we got there, we must have worked up quite an appetite because we were hungry for hot apple cider and apple cider doughnuts. Neither were a disappointment. After the snack, we walked up the short hill to pay for our apple picking bags. We were quite ambitious and decided to get a large bag versus a small and medium bag for $3 less.

Apple picking was very fun. We both got on the ladders to go higher into the trees. Mike wore what we decided was the perfect apple picking shirt as it had a front pocket. I did not wear the perfect apple picking shirt and had to toss my apples down to Mike. We got a bunch of apples; McIntosh, Cortland, and Empire apples.

Today I went to the grocery store and came home to find a ton of apples already peeled and cored for my baking wishes. Mike is a great sous chef and prepped a ton of apples. As a result, I made an apple crumb pie, apple crisp, applesauce, and a savory dish of kielbasa with apple slices. Be prepared for an apple overload on eatingwithkeating.