In past years I have put up fruit with my mom. We have dried and made apple sauce mostly. This year was a little different. We are in Washington this year and a 12 hour drive is just a little too long to be putting up fruit. While Hans was at work the opportunity came up from a co-worker to go and pick fruit at her friend's orchard. They said come and pick them on Sunday, but we made arrangements to go on the next Saturday instead.
I have to say this is a lot different than picking apples at my parents. They had picking sacks- which are great and so helpful to get a lot of fruit picked at one time. The trees are only about 10 feet tall and rather skinny. This worked great for me and Arlee. Hans was the one up on the ladder, but we were still able to help out a lot since there were a fair amount within reach for us. In the trees the apples were clumped together, which made for easy yet productive picking. Just to give you a better picture two of these picking sacks would over flow a repack box. I really don't think that I will go back to picking apples the same way ever again. I hope we keep getting the opportunity to pick apples every year so we can keep up our dried apples and apple sauce supply. They make for a delicious treat. Not to mention healthy too. : )
Here are some pictures: The one above is Hans with the trees, picking sack and a huge smile on his face. The one below is the same kind of thing, but you can see the apples in the sack.
This is how the day started. Arlee didn't want to go and pick apples, but as you can see she changed her mind once we were out and about. The orchard was in a town called, Tieton. It is about a half hour away and it very rural. We didn't get a picture of it, but looking out from above the town looked so pretty in the fall colors with the leaves changing.
Arlee showing off all the apples.
Here are the fruits of our labors. HAHA. We were going to stop at about box three because we brought Hans' car and we weren't going to be able to fit anymore in. Well, Hans went to put the box in and it tore and out came all the apples. So we decided that we would just load up his trunk and put them in boxes later. Livvy or Libby- Hans and I can't agree what her name is was telling the people in her house to come and look at our trunk. She told us to take all the apples that we would like so we did just that. Well it is more like what we thought we could handle. Since I knew that I would be putting up most of them and expecting Lydia I thought we better take it "easy". Hans would have kept going, but Arlee and I were done. The sack that you can see are Granny Smith Apples and we are hoping to make a pie out of them. Talk about delicious! We hope anyway.
The apples that were picked for the most part were golden delicious with about 20 of red delicious and 20 granny smith. I have dried about seven- 1 gallon bags of apples and we still have about 4 boxes left to make apple sauce. This will be the first time making apple sauce with out my mom around telling me if I am doing right or not. She is only a phone call away, but it is not the same.
Me and the apples.
I have to say that this corer, peeler and slicer machine is probably the only reason one would want to dry apples. It makes it so much easier (I imagine- since I have never done it with out).
This is kind of a funny one. The string is from one apple and there is an apple in Hans' mouth. I have to say that Hans is such a trooper in posing for this picture. After I took the picture Hans said that he felt ridiculous. I told him that he looked pretty ridiculous too. Haha. Then he asked me why I made him do that. I told him I didn't think that he would! But you have to admit it makes a pretty funny looking picture. : P
I love that Hans will do stuff like this for me with out a fight. We have a great time together and enjoy spending his time off work drying apples.
We had to order an apple strainer and got that in the mail yesterday, but we are still waiting for the canner to come. The only thing that I had to put the apples up was the two dryers. One that I got from my mom's mom and the other from my dad's mom. These are great to get for free. It made our "Operation Harvest" a little less expensive. Thank you Grandmas for your donations. :)
*Operation Harvest- came from the signs around town here. When I first saw them I started laughing, because this is not something that I would have seen in Salt Lake. I have to say though. I love seeing the orchards and vineyards here. They are beautiful and even more so in the fall.
Until Part 2 of Operation Harvest... or some other event worth blogging... LATERS!
The Hoges
3 comments:
From Grandma
dear Chelsey................Your apples looked so good. I could almost taste them. I used to can food with my Mother, too. and I can remember her doing it with my grandmother. The crisp air outside always smelled so good when they would do chili sauce. (It came before salsa) I am glad that you are using the dryer. I loved it and hated to see it just standing in the garage. You are so lucky that Hans will work with you. My Dad always helped my Mother in the kitchen. It is such a good memory to see them together.. I love the pictures!! Thanks so much .................love, grandma
Holy Cow girl when you take on a challenge you don't go small!! That's a whole lotta apples you guys picked an I'm even more impressed that you are going to put them up.
Good job!!!
What is the saying?
"Go BIG or go home!" Bring it one baby.
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