Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree...With Anyone Else but Me

One of my all time FAVORITE fall activities on the east coast is apple picking. I don’t know if we never did this as a family in Utah or if it’s even something that’s done back home, but here it is HUGE! All across Virginia different orchards offer a variety of apple types. Last year we drove three hours south to go to Carter Mountain Orchard, a well-known orchard here. We went over conference weekend and plugged the phone in as we drove listening to the speakers and music. We decided to make that a tradition again this year without the three-hour drive. We went to Stribling Orchard, about an hour west of us with friends and it was so beautiful!

Listening to President Uchtdorf on the drive out. This year’s October conference was neat because they, for the first time, had certain speakers give their talk in their native tongue. We held our breathe in suspense, wondering if President Uchtdorf would pound the pulpit in German.

It's quite funny because even though you go to an apple orchard to pick apples, they already have boxes and boxes full of pre-picked ones. You know... just in case you are in a hurry. J

It's nice to bring along a tall person to get the good apples at the top. 

Beautiful Shenandoah hills in the background. 

Any apples that have fallen to the ground are free game. So we like to taste each apple from the fallen ones to know whether we want to pick that type of apple.

Kyle, the apple picker. 

With our loot.

After we got the apples home we gave them a good bath....

....And piled them up to look pretty to decide what we were going to do with all of them. But the month of October proved to be filled with apple filled treats including applesauce, apple muffins, an apple and stuffing pork dish, mini apple caramel pies, plenty of apple pie, apple dumplings and apple cider. A perfect way to ring in fall.