…well, I usually eat 3 or 4. I don’t eat them for health benefits or because they are cheap or for whatever other reason – I just like the apples. I like them fresh, cooked, in a pie, in a cake, baked, in apple sauce, with caramel or honey, sliced, peeled, unpeeled and I like most of the varieties. Every year we try to make a trip to a local apple orchard to pick some fresh fruit. I was a locavore before it became trendy and people started doing it to feel good about themselves.
We are surrounded by many apple orchards. There is Vaughn’s in Weston, we were going there for years, Schreiman’s in Waverly, it’s not u-pick but is very nice and in a beautiful historic area; and for the last couple of years we are picking apples at Pome on the Range orchard in Williamsburg, KS. Besides apples and pumpkins they also sell fruit wines some Kansas-grown produce, jams, honey and other things that are good for you.
Today they had their annual fall festival but it looks like they still have plenty of apples to pick for the next weekend or three. If you are in Kansas, especially South Johnson County, you are just 25-30 miles away. Not only you will keep the doctor away, you will be able to brag about eating local and catch envious looks of your not-so-hip friends. While you are at it, mention that you only drink Shatto milk to completely crush them with you locavorness.
For the next year I am keeping an eye on the Wagon Wheel Orchard which was picked out early this year due to being very young. They seem to have a great variety – something I am always looking for.
Eat an apple! (Click for more)
Mmmm, now I am jonesing for a Carmel Apple Pie from the orchard near my hometown.
An orchard trip can be a very pleasant outing, my brother and I always competed to find the most perfect of each kind we picked.
You’ve been to Waverly? We always get our apples at Rasa Orchard, which is on 24 highway but much closer than Waverly.
When it’s the season, we each eat two or three apples a day. I’d love to make lots of pies, but we don’t need them. I’ve made one, and it’ll probably be the only one this year.
We’ve been to Waverly more than once. It’s a long trip for me because I live on the West side of the Metro, but HWY 24 is all fixed up and there is never any traffic. Very nice scenic drive. Maybe next year we’ll do it again.
Locavore? I pick them off the tree in my back yard, typically once or twice a week after work.
How d’ya like them apples!
Emaw, after the elections we will expropriate and then split up your estate into a bunch of smaller plots so more people like me can have their FAIR share of your apple bounty. This is what your bathroom will look like for example. Until then, enjoy what you have for another 99 days or so.
stephensons also still has their orchard, though the restaraunt is closed.
I saw your note on our orchard “Wagon Wheel Orchard” and just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I’m grafting an additional 100 apple varieties this spring. We should be at over 350 fruit types by this year end. – We look forward to seeing you this summer or fall. Please take a look at WagonWheelOrchard.blogspot.com for our up to date picking report. Thanks, Rick Godsil
Rick, thanks for the update. I am also a subscriber on your blog (btw, there is a typo-all starting dates are listed as ‘pm’. Please blog or send me updates and I will gladly repost or link them here. I hope your orchard is OK after the last week’s snow (see my yesterday’s post about Waverly, they email me a newsletter, I can forward you a copy). Most of all I am looking forward to cherries – a rarity in this area.
[...] why when we came back from the apple orchard on Sunday all I had to do is search and find my last year’s post about apples and another one about the apple recipes. Even my photos looked the same — the same place, the same [...]