Saturday, October 04, 2008

Too Many Cotton Pickin' Pictures

So they aren't pictures of picking cotton but rather apple picking pictures and yes, I have quite a few. Stephanie, her mom, Karen, Oliver and I all went to a farmstead in McMinnville this morning to pick organic apples. It was a bit of a drive but for $.20/pound it was worth it. I was a little bit worried about the windy and rainy weather that was working it's way through the Willamette Valley but somehow we stayed dry. I've forgotten exactly what kinds we picked but we got plenty for pies, cobblers, crisps, applesauce and just plain eating.

These guys welcomed us into the orchard, the farmer told us to toss them an apple or two on the way out, so we did.
Beautiful apple begging to be made into applesauce.

Oliver tasted them to be sure.

We had many different containers to put our apples into. Bags, Rubbermaid containers, laundry baskets and this...I just happened to turn and see this basket full of apples sitting between the rows of trees. I couldn't have set up this picture any better.

Again, I can't remember which apples these were but I loved that they were on the smaller side and looked a lot like plums.

Oliver tasted these ones too. The farmer told us to taste our way through the orchard (dozen-ish varieties) to find the ones we liked the best. Oliver took this literally! He had 4 or 5 apples while we were out picking.

So yummy!

Playing with my color capture feature on my camera.

This tree really looked like it was a waterfall of apples.

This is what we picked. I'm not going to tell you how many pounds we picked because I want you to guess! Give it shot, how many pounds do you think we picked today? The black shopping bags on each end are also full of apples so don't forget to figure those into your calculations.

On the way out of the orchard were these two happy horses.

They got to enjoy some apples too, the farmer said that they would appreciate a treat or two from the orchard and we obliged. I have fed many an apple to many a horse and I swear these two were the most dainty and well mannered apple eaters ever! They were gentle, took small bites, didn't slobber all over you and patiently waited for the next bite.

Crunch, munch, slurp, smack, num, num, num, num!

9 comments:

Suz... said...

my guess is 30 pounds. I'm sad to see this pics, I have to say...today was our day to go apple pickin' but the orchard we go to closed down a couple weeks ago due to a small crop. No freshly made organic apple pies for us. :( glad you got your fill, though.

Shana said...

I will have to guess 55 lbs. Those apples can get heavy! Jen made some really good apple butter last year. I can get the recipe for you if you would like to try it. Yummmm! I love apples!

Suz... said...

I need to piggy-back on Shana's comments...can I get that recipe for apple butter? My husband has fond memories of apple butter and I know he would enjoy it.
Bre wants to know why cousin Noah didn't go w/ you...and she wanted to tell you that the horse that is sticking his tongue out is hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Great pictures Tiff and so quick. Can I guess the weight too? I guess that would be cheating.

Anonymous said...

Yum- they look so good! My guess is 45 lbs.

Johnson Family said...

30, 55 and 45 pounds...all a bit light so far. I will post the total pounds tomorrow afternoon. Maybe I'll have to come up with something special for the one who has the closest guess! Yes, Shana, that would be great to have the apple butter recipe and I'll pass it onto Su. John, Stephanie's husband, offered to let Noah stay and play with Ty and Jack while us women and Oliver went apple picking. Loud crazy fun with a bunch of boys or a bunch of apple picking women and an annoying little brother...guess which one he picked? Of course you can guess the weight Karen, just email me privately!! =)

Wrights13 said...

I'm going to recommend that whoever comes closest gets some of that apple butter. Yum that sounds good!

Janet said...

Ok...i want in on this...I'm going with 73 lbs. The apples look delicious! How much fun was that!!! i wanna go too!!!

Anonymous said...

I stole a couple of your pictures of the day. I love the piggy one.