A Day at the Orchard

What a fun day! Saturday after Patrick was finished working, we decided to do something I'd been wanting to do since last year. We went to the Wagon Wheel Orchard and the kids picked apples. It is a nice little farm, which by address is in Gardner, but upon driving, I totally did not feel like I was in Gardner. Thought in my mind, "We're not in Kansas anymore" (ha, ha). Well, it wasn't THAT far away, but I had never been that far out before, that's for sure! Well worth it, though.

The orchard is owned and run by a family that lives there onsite. They have 550 varieties of apples! I didn't know there were that many! Some are for people to pick, and timing determines which varieties are ready for picking. Some are test varieties for the USDA also, so those never get picked. This weekend, we were able to pick Golden Delicious, Liberty, and Johnagold apples. Yummy.

The kids really had a great time. The hay rides weren't running that day, but we did see some chickens and goats and also got to feed the catfish in the pond. They had a nice campfire site there that Nathaniel and I enjoyed and talked about campfire songs and cowboys. Then we sat there and just enjoyed how quiet and peaceful it was out there. It was not a crowded place, so the kids could pretty much run free through the orchard. So much fun and VERY relaxing, actually. Just what we needed after a very hectic week. It led to Nathaniel telling me that we should move to a farm. Then that led to me telling stories about living on the farm including: the creek, the animals, taking out "the garbage" ("Yes, Nathaniel, that was one of our chores - no garbage disposal!), burning the trash ("Yes, we burned it. No, a trash truck didn't come to our house."), and of course - washing & drying dishes. It was great.

We brought home three nice bags of apples - all sizes of apples - some were very small & cute. They have all been eating them like crazy. They sure are good. Trivia: I really have never bought bad apples, but at the store, they can actually be up to a year old (they get stored in buildings with no oxygen)!

A few pics coming...