Apple Town

 

Last Friday we drove to Oak Glen to pick apples for Paul's birthday apple pie.  There weren't any apples to pick.  Before we left I read that you should call ahead to find out what is being harvested.  You should call ahead.  Especially before you tell your three-year-old for a week that he'll be picking apples on Friday, and before he's started practicing at home with some sort of paint scraper or something that he calls his apple picker, and definitely before you check out books from the library to help him get excited about picking apples, and then before he starts speculating about whether he'll need a ladder.  You should call.  I'll give you all the numbers you need at the end.  There were some raspberries though.  And they were delicious.  Desmond ate about half that basket before we got home.

We also managed to pick a pumpkin.  (When we got home the boy had a melt-down because I wouldn't let him eat it.  Ah, the son of a food blogger.) We also watched apples being pressed into cider and brought home a gallon of our own.  

And we bought apples - little tiny sweet tart cameos for snacking.  And then a big bag of granny smiths and another of pippins (I think.  We bought those just before we drove home at 2:30 when we had finally resigned ourselves to not picking apples, and by that point we all really needed a nap, and the bag's not labeled.) for baking.  

There were also old-timey tankards of cider for drinking.  Riley's Apple Farm does this whole big colonial schtick - New England colonial - with costumed guides and candle making demonstrations and kids rolling hoops on the big center lawn.  We went for a pint in the period reproduction tavern, but the only thing on tap at Riley's Apple Farm is juice.  You should know this before you tell your husband for a week that he can have a nice pint in a big tankard, before he starts imagining what sort of ales they'll have on tap, before he says that he doesn't mind that his birthday's not a big deal this year - just as long as he gets a good pint.  

Despite the disappointments (that could have been avoided with a bit more research and preparation on my part) we actually had a pretty fun day out.  The weather was crisp - we got to wear sweaters. And we had our first successful family of four major outing. (Did I tell you about our previous family of four outing where we forgot Desmond's shoes?  So the relative success of Apple Town was huge.)  We'll go back.  Cheers.    

 

Riley's Apple Farm  (909) 797 - 4061
(In the future, I will save the colonial schtick for field trip groups.)

Riley's at Los Rios Rancho (909) 797 - 1005
(We picked a pumpkin here.)

Willowbrook Apple Farm (909) 797 - 9484
(This seemed like one of the least gimicky apple farms, but they're only open on the weekends.)

Snow-Line Orchard (909) 797 - 3415
(This was my favorite - fresh pressed cider, berries to pick, and picnic tables underneath a huge chestnut tree.  Incidentally they're famous for their apple cider donuts, but I haven't checked on their vegan-ness so I wasn't going to bring it up.)