Along with everyone else who has a Facebook account, I went apple picking this weekend with David and his family. I hope that everyone else had as much fun as we did, because it was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. As soon as we stepped onto the farm and saw all of the produce that was, literally, ripe for the picking, I became crazed. A devilish twinkle crept into my eye, and I wanted EVERYTHING. Take a guess at how many pounds of apples are in our basket (the answer will be revealed!).

The rows upon rows of apple trees were gorgeous. When we pulled up to the farm, I got a little worried that there wouldn’t be anything left for us because it was relatively late in the season and the parking lot was teeming with happy families. The second we arrived at the apple orchards, my fears were allayed. The apple supply was seemingly endless and comprised of all different varieties.

We picked cameos, fujis, pink ladies, braeburns, and even some golden delicious. I don’t think I had ever tried a cameo apple before, but they were sweet, juicy, and crisp, as were the rest of the apples. We could have kept on picking, but I set a strict one bucket limit that even my ravenous urges could not overcome.

Once we were through with the apples, it was on to the pumpkin patch. That’s where I really went wild. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to pick a pumpkin directly from the patch, getting to cut the vine. Every pumpkin “patch” I have ever visited involved pre-cut pumpkin just plopped down to look pretty. But not here! While there were plenty of pre-cut pumpkins and squash to be had, the cutters didn’t find them all! So we set out to scour the fields and tried to only choose gourds that we could take from the earth ourselves. David snagged an awesome acorn squash, his dad spied the best pumpkin, and I pulled up a very large spaghetti squash (even though I’m not a huge fan of them). All told, we also ended up with a huge butternut squash, a lumpy orange squash that I have yet to identify, and a kabocha squash. I was in HEAVEN!

But back to the apples: at checkout time, we discovered that we had picked 27.5 pounds of apples! I had guessed 23.5 pounds, but our closest guesser came in at 25 pounds. What is a girl to do with all of these apples?

Well, this girl has some plans. Aside from the apples that we devoured in the car ride home, I have a few surprises for you. I certainly hope that one of them involves apple butter, which was being produced on-site at the farm. They were stirring these big batches up and jarring them right there. I bought a jar from the country store, but I would love to make my own! I hope you’re all apple lovers– get ready for the goodness!