Sunday, September 14, 2014

A Saturday At The Apple Orchard

Fall is in the air here. What better way to ring in the new season than with apple picking! We went to our favorite orchard near Des Moines and came home with 20+ pounds of apples to make homemade applesauce, pies, apple nachos, apple crisp, and crock pot apple oatmeal. We had a great time, minus lots of mosquitoes biting us as we picked.

We discovered Happy Apple Orchard in Cumming, IA last year. They also have a hay ride that takes you to their pumpkin patch, but we skipped that portion of our visit since we'll be going to a pumpkin patch in a couple of weeks. We were pleased with how the orchard ran things last year and were pleased this year as well, although I wasn't too impressed that the prices went up.
Last year, we paid for one large bag to put the apples in (a flat fee of $20). This year, we paid twice that (the bag cost $25 and we had to pay per person to pick the apples). However, after looking into it, it seems that's how majority of the orchards around central Iowa charge to pick apples so it seems we got lucky last year!

Gorgeous blue skies and a cool breeze while we picked apples.



We tried to get a good variety of red and green apples. We were so impressed with how good and big the apples looked this year.











The kids enjoyed the playground at the Orchard as well!


If time allows (which it usually doesn't) I'd like to go to another apple orchard this year for more apple picking....we tend to go through our apples quite quickly! I particularly enjoyed speaking with the family about the orchard, their business, and walking around the land. If you're looking for a place to go pick apples with the kids this fall, definitely keep Happy Apple Orchard in mind.