Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Going to the Orchard (but the farm was better)



Arizona is a very diverse state. We are best known for our saguaros and deserts, but we also have mountains and forests and grasslands and even wetlands. We decided to take the family out to commune with nature. It is almost "Fall" after all. It is also apple picking season (if there were any apples to be picked). Our original plan was to head up to Date Creek Ranch North West of the Valley. Luckily my husband decided to check things out on their web page before we left. Seems that Arizona suffered some pretty bad freezes back in April that devastated this year's apple crop. So we decided to head south past Tucson to Apple Annie's Orchard and Farm in Wilcox, AZ. Their apples were also hit by the freeze, but there were still apples to pick.  We came home with 15 lbs of various apples. What does one do with 15 pounds of apples? Make apple sauce. It was my first try and I would have to say it was very easy.

But even better than the apples was the farm!! They had rows upon rows of vegetables (which I pretend to like for my children's sake) for the picking. So we all tromped out into the fields and picked yummy veggies. We came home with eggplant, various peppers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes and a cucumber for Cas. We even got enough for the neighbors. :)

A fun day was had by all.

1 comment:

Ms. Angie said...

Those veggies look great! It's funny how our parents grew up on a farm and so always knew how food got on their plate. But our kids will have to learn how it all happens, whether by going on a field trip (literally) or by trying to have a garden.