With the fall weather seemingly here to stay, it felt like it was time to go apple picking. We talked about it yesterday at dinner and he seemed pretty excited, though I was worried about the height of the apples. Blueberry picking was so fun and there were tons of berries right at his level, but I was foggy on how apple trees measured up...Fast forward a day and we arrived at Shelburne Farm which is very close to our new house (15 minutes or maybe less). We bought a bag for our apples (10 lbs when full!) and then inquired about the hayrides. As soon as he heard me ask about them, Finley's ears perked up and he said, "Where's the tractor for the hayride??" They ran on the hour so at 3:40pm, we wouldn't have to wait too long and Finley had plenty of other farm vehicles to check out. Lucky for us, the tractor driver found us and said he'd take us now since it was his last trip of the day. Finley hopped aboard and Dagny in the front pack went along for the ride. It was a pretty bumpy ride so Finley and I held onto each other and Dagny soon fell asleep. There were apple trees in all directions and it was a lovely ride.
Then, it was time to pick some apples. We headed up the hill, past the horse barn, and into the orchard. We settled on Empire apples since they are excellent "lunch box" apples and were closer than all the other varieties! As soon as Finley spotted some apples at his level, he snapped into action. He soon discovered that apples are a lot harder to pick than blueberries, he really had to put some muscle into it. Too bad apple picking pictures are tough when the apple picker is deep into the tree...
After tossing four or five apples, Finley picked up the bag to meet me a few trees over.
He barely made it over to me saying the bag was much too heavy and "you can carry it and I will put more apples in." Deal. He got ones from the low branches and I reached some higher ones and before I knew it, our bag was overflowing!
Finley wanted to keep picking but I explained that once our bag was full, it was time to head back and eat some. We began walking back despite being tempted to keep picking along the way. About 3/4 of the way back, Finley stopped and asked, "Will someone please carry me?" Uh-oh. I said I couldn't since I had Dagny and Daddy was at work, but maybe he could choose which apple he was going to eat first and carry that back to the picnic tables. It worked! He selected an apple, asked to hold me hand, and we were on our way once again.
We both began eating our apples and he was sure to tell me he wouldn't eat the stem. He inhaled his apple, I barely beat him out with mine and then we tossed the cores into the trash.
The farm's cat, Blackie, hung out with us and Finley asked me if cats eat apples since "they are so juicy."
He finished his second apple and asked to go visit some of the animals. We saw a llama, some goats, chickens, and two cute ponies and Finley tossed in some hay through the fence that he said "must have fallen out but now they can eat it." So thoughtful, my future farmer. We walked back to the car and when he saw our bag of apples, he asked for yet another one! He gobbled it up on the way home and then asked for his fourth apple and I explained that too many apples might hurt his belly, so I offered him a graham cracker (who knew I'd prefer him to eat a graham cracker over a piece of fruit!).
A successful outing and one we will probably embark on at least one more time before apple season is over! A nice lady (with two kids of her own) said how lucky I was to have two beautiful kids to go apple picking with and that really made me smile :)
Something funny to add that ties into all the apples Finley ate today. As dinner was winding down, Finley said, "Mommy, I finished my carrots. Can I have a banana for dessert?" Gotta love his food preferences, right? We do let him partake in sweet desserts now and again but lately he seems to qualify anything extra after dinner as a "dessert" so if the kid requests pretzels or bananas for dessert--who are we to turn him down?
No comments:
Post a Comment