Annual Apple Picking Family Day!!

Yesterday we decided to have the annual McBride Apple Picking day.  we packed up, and headed out towards Asheville, NC to the mountains to go and get some Honeycrisps.  If you don't know what a honeycrisp apple is, then you need to find out ASAP.  They are the greatest apple ever invented. Seriously.
they were an experiment at the University of Minnesota, they were cross breeding trying to develop an apple for colder climates. The true parentage of the Honeycrisp is still unknown.  They do know one of the parents is The Keepsake (which is a cross between a Northern Spy and MN447), but the other is still being researched.
. They are a cold hardy apple variety, so even when the mountains get snow and cold snaps the trees flourish. They do best in colder climates like New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota , but have since become a prized apple of the mountain growers here in NC.   They seem to thrive in the mountains here.


Why do I love these so much??  They are firm, juicy , sweet and tart all rolled into one. Eat them raw, they cook well too. They are one of the fastest growing apples as far as popularity.

So usually we go to Grandads Apples, but this year we decided to try a new place.  Grandads only had the pre-picked honeycrisps and we wanted to pick our own.  Charles found a place that had U-Pick Honeycrisps. It was Creasman Farms..  They are ONLY OPEN ON SUNDAYS for Picking!! They were a little more remote and out of the way than Grandads, BUT they were quiet, they had lots of trees with really good apples, and they were great price-wise.  The lady at the farm said  "We don't have all the entertainment", that's not what they are about.  they are about you coming to pick apples. No corn mazes, no pony rides, no country store and baked goods. I LOVED that.  I was there to get apples, not spend the day burning money and spent all that time to go and get pre-bagged apples.
We are definitely using them next year!

heading in with the haul

basket of apples

Finn insisted on taking our picture...while Charles was chewing.

apple orchards at Creasman Farms

helllooooo gorgeous!

red delicious

red delicious

After we were done picking we headed back towards Grandads, because no family apple day is complete without a cider slushy and apple turnover from Grandads apples. They were CROWDED.

boys thought they found a TARDIS...turns out it was an old Bell South Phone Booth.

Finn in the phone booth

no filter needed. This is an amazing bit of country

peter in his TARDIS

Pumpkins already?? I guess it's that time of year!

Headed home and now I have about 40# or more of apples that I gotta use up!!

Love apple day. 

An Apple A Day...

Saturday we went to Hendersonville, NC. HV is the Apple Capital of North Carolina and there are apples everywhere. The crisp mountain air makes for great growing conditions!

Out of all the apple farms and orchards only a few let you Pick your own. The one we go to is

Granddads apples. We have gone there several years now and really love it. They have pick your own, or you can buy pre picked. They have a huge orchard with lots of variety. They have a general store where you can buy cider and jams and jellies and cookbooks and country crafts. I myself had a homemade apple turnover. YUM!! The boys got little plastic apple shaped sippy bottles with apple cider in them. They have a gigantic corn maze and you can feed their llamas. It is really a neat place to visit.

So we got there and the apples they had available for picking were Golden Delicious and Honeycrisps. I am not a huge Golden Delicious fan, but I AM a Honeycrisp lover.

Honeycrisps are probably one of THE BEST apples grown. It is a cross between a honeygold and the Macoun. It is crisp, with a firm smooth flesh, sweet and juicy with the perfect apple taste. It makes a great fresh eating apple, great pies, applesauce, juice and cider. It is my all around favorite apple and has a long shelf life. Honeycrisps are not really an apple you can walk into any store and find, which is a shame.

We picked and picked and picked and ate apples. My dad said "these apples couldn't be any better if they were stolen!"(Apparently stolen apples taste better??)

Here are Peter and Finn holding some of their hard picked fruit. I have never seen them eat so many apples!!

Finn getting in the shade and finding the perfect

apple!

another "squints" picture. It was so hot and sunny outside, but that didnt stop Peter from picking a huge bag of apples!!

We ended up with 2 bushels of apples.

Mom and Dad took a bushel and I took a bushel.

They only charge 20 a bushel and we had 100 pounds of apples for $40 total. So for 40 cents a pound, you cant beat it.

I actually need to refrigerate them, or they will lose their crisp.

Tomorrow...APPLESAUCE TUTORIAL!!