Photo from Bellewood Acres
Mr. Gaunt and I went on Monday, after he got off work, to pick apples at Bellewood Acres. Mr. Gaunt has NEVER been to an orchard! Isn’t that crazy? There are lots off funny little things that apparently you don’t know about when you live in Colorado. For instance Mr. Gaunt had never seen a clover patch before. The thought of looking for a 4 leaf clover seemed like make-believe, as clover doesn’t grow wild in Colorado. When he first moved here he wanted to plant FERNS, IVY and BLACKBERRIES in our yard, I kid you not. He didn’t realize that all three of those plants are almost consider invasive weeds in Washington. Along with these, Mr. Gaunt has never picked apples off a tree. Sigh, it’s like have a kid, so sweet to get to do these things with him for the first time. (this winter I’m taking him to a Christmas tree farm to cut down a tree, so excited!)
Anyway I really wanted to make some applesauce this year to freeze (a post coming soon) so we went and picked a 10 pound bag of Apples at Bellewood. If you haven’t been to Bellewood, you should go. They recently built a huge indoor retail/barn/cafe that has all sorts of yummy apple treats! Pies, Apple Butter, Apple Cider, Donuts, and little gifts too! They also have a big pumpkin patch that is back dropped by the breathtaking Mt. Baker!
We didn’t take any pumpkin home, we are waiting until next weekend to decorate the front porch. So we took some photos and look around while we waited for the golf cart to come pick us up to take us out to the orchards. The orchards are HUGE, the start of them is in the upper left hand corner of the above photo. I was shocked once we got back there how large they are, so many kind of apples!
Once the golf cart came, they took us out to the orchards, dropped us off, told us how to properly pick an apple so you don’t hurt the branch, and left us to be. The thing about apple picking is that you are surrounded by perfect apples on perfect short groomed trees. It takes less than 5 minutes to fill a 10 pound bag with apples, but its the experience that counts. We wandered a little and took some photos, then got back on the cart and went back to the barn to pay.
Yesterday I made Applesauce, and a pumpkin Oat bake with Bellewood Apples! I still have a few more, I might make a crisp or something with. Or possibly some unsweetened apple sauce that I can use in place of oil when baking this winter. Needles to say I crossed one more thing off my fall bucket list!
