Apple Picking Season

It's that time of year again. We went out to Hicks Orchard in Granville, NY, about 30 minutes from our house, to pick some apples.

There is something mystical about walking into an orchard where all you can see all around you are apple trees, and virtually every fruit on the tree is the size

of a softball.

With four helpers, it only took about 20 minutes to pick four half-bushels, twice as much as we bought last year.

Now that Meridith has some industrial-grade canning supplies and desires, we figured this was a good way to fill some jars.

We went exclusively with Northern Spy apples this year, because many of the other varieties we like were decimated by some late frosts this spring.

After a full day of canning, you can see seven quarts of apple pie filling, six pints of apple butter, and eight pints of apple jelly. But the real kicker is that this represents just one of the four half-bushels that we got.

We're going to be busy for the next week trying to get these apples processed. It might be a little while before any of the stuff in these cans starts to look appetizing again.