Cold Apples

10 yr old Big J, in his Buky Thorpe

A friend of a friend has an apple orchard. They mentioned they could use some gleaners- apples for the taking, just pitch in a bit and pick a tree clean. Was I interested? Um, yeah! With snow in the air, and more on the way, it was kind of a 'how soon can you get here?' situation, so after seeing Teenager off to a soccer double header (in 28 degrees with snow and wind, better him than me, I tell ya, I wouldn't last a minute, I'da quit the team right there on the spot, but I'm wimpy- he's hearty) and husband off to some Saturday 'extra' working, I cracked the whip, rounded up every one's coat, ordered the donning of the mittens, hats, and boots, and headed down and over a town or two for some picking fun.

It was cold. Really cold. After a while, my toes hurt far too much to call that fun, but the baskets and buckets we'd brought were not yet full, and with another hard freeze on the way, the apples weren't going to last. It was 'now or never', so we picked on. I came home with I dunno how many Fireside, Cortland, and Harrelson apples (my personal fave!!)- more than we can eat anytime soon, even with 7 children and 2 adults eating on a regular basis around here, so there will be some 'putting food by' going on for the next several days. Applesauce tomorrow, as well as dehydrating (oh, I love dehydrated apples for snacking!) and freezing some slices ready for pies. We might have had a huge batch (ok, they might all be huge, we do feed a few people around here) of oatmeal loaded with apples and cinnamon (another favorite!) and a more generous than usual amount of brown sugar... and we may have some apple crisps and there may even be a pie or two if I can find the time for some crust making tomorrow.

Anyway, like I said, it was cold. Seriously, and with that wind, oh my, even my cold-heartiest of my cold-hearty children had a few whimpering moments. This global warming is really hard on less-than-ideally protected feet, like mine, and my poor oldest daughter who just wouldn't stay little until her Carters wore out- she outgrew her winter boots and we haven't found her a new pair yet, mostly because we really haven't looked much yet, you know, as it was only October 10th!! Lady Liberty ended up warming in the van (with Baby J) for a bit, at least until it was time to go see the horses! Nothing like a horse to bring a frozen girl out to brave the elements, even if the horse runs off into the pasture after the tractor trailor filled with apples...

I'm glad I had my new hat, but check out my hands- I didn't want to dirty any 'good' mittens and I couldn't find any decent gloves, so I grabbed a pair of garden gloves, LOL! Whatever, I was in it for the apples, not the hand shots!

And now I'm ready for some serious warm things knitting, or at least some serious warm bed cozying- time to put the down comforter into the flannel duvet cover! I have yarn for a sweater, I even hand wound my first skein this morning... Now I just need some free-time, HA!

Do you have a favorite apple variety? Favorite apple recipe? (Remember this one?) Freezing trip to the apple orchard story to share? I'd like to think I'm not the only one to tempt frostbite fate for apples, but you never can tell about these things...

Happy knitting-

ali