I absolutely love fresh fruit. And by fresh I mean, I pick and eat the fruit right then. The ultimate fresh. While in Oregon in October, I took Mason to an apple orchard with my sister-in-law and her kids. The golden delicious and Fuji apples were ripe and soooooooo yummy, and just sitting there yelling at us to eat them. So we did. And when we were done with those apples, we ate some more. And in between bites, we picked some for later.
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| Mason yelling up to his cousin to pass him another apple to put in the bucket. They were a good team. |
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| Eating apples. Mmmmm. |
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| Stomping apples that had fallen to the ground. |
The next morning we took the apples we picked and went back to the orchard to have them pressed into apple cider. They said they get crazy busy, but we got there early and it was drizzling out, so the crowds didn't show up until we were done and leaving. So nice. And because we were the only ones there, the owners spent a lot of time with Mason. They took him around the orchard on a four wheeler and then let him take his sweet time helping to make the cider. Usually the owners don't actually help do the cider and they push you (and the partner you brought with you, because it takes two people) to go fast because so many people want to do it. I'm glad we went when we did. Mason loved it.
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| Adding apples to the buckets to be rinsed. |
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| Putting them in the chute and watching them roll down... |
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| Watching them get ground up into the barrel where they are then pressed and all your yummy cider runs out the bottom into waiting pitchers. |
And the final product? So good and sweet. Totally worth it and something I will do again next year if we go around the same time of year.
