Apple picking is one of my favourite fall traditions. We’d never been before 2005, but now I can’t imagine going a year without a trip to the orchard. This year, we headed back to our first favourite, Kilmarnock Orchard. It’s the better part of an hour’s drive from Ottawa, but the drive is beautiful on a bright blue autumn morning, and if you make a stop at nearby Merrickville on your way home, it’s a lovely way to spend a day together.
This tree is not indicative of the size of tree you’ll find at Kilmarnock, but I was charmed by it. It’s a Charlie Brown Apple Tree!
Lucas was even more adorable than usual. He loves apples, and calls any round-ish fruit an “abble” — nectarines, peaches, and tomatoes are all “abbles”. He was beyond excited to see not only the tractor-pulled “train” that took us out to the orchard, but the fact that there were apples as far as his eye could see. If he said “Abble!!” (you can actually hear the exclamation points) once, he said it five dozen times.
Why should you pick the apples way up there on those branches, when there are tonnes of apples just lying around in the grass, waiting to be collected?
(I’d like to assure you that in the picture above, he’s actually eating an apple I picked for him instead of one of the ground apples, but the odds are only about 50/50. *shrugs*)
I love the apples, I love the chance to get outside, I love to watch them enjoying themselves, I love to notice how much they’ve grown in the year since we last went apple picking. But what I really love? The chance to spend time with my menfolk.
(It’s not the best portrait, but I love the matching expressions on Lucas’s and Tristan’s face!)
I had better success with individual portraits. The orchard light in September is lovely!
(Lucas is in B&W because his skin tone was really uneven in colour, reflecting the red and green of the tractor we were in, and I haven’t figured out how to fix that in Photoshop yet! Besides, I like portraits in B&W.)
It was well after lunch time by the time we’d picked our fill, meandered the length of the orchard, gone for an extra train run, and picked up a home-made apple-caramel pie, so we scooted up to Merrickville for a bite to eat and a wander down the main strip.
Merrickville is a picturesque little town right on the Rideau Canal, a haven for the artistic sorts. These are just a few of the things we enjoyed.
So now we have three heaping serving bowls of apples, mostly Lobos and Macs. (I’m disappointed, my faves are Empires but because of the cruddy summer they’re slow in ripening this year.) Do you have any good apple recipes to share? I’m particularly looking for an easy apple crisp recipe. Mmmmm, abbles!
(There are even more photos on Flickr! And about 150 on the computer that I didn’t post but don’t have the heart to delete…)
Absolutely the most gorgeous family of men/boys ever.
Beautiful! When I saw the title of the post in my Blog Reader I knew I’d be in for some gorgeous photos.
No recipes to share (only because I’m too tired to go get my favourite Apple Crisp recipe right this minute), but I do love to decorate with apples and this is my favourite:
Cut a shallow hole in the top of an apple the size of a tea light. Put a tea light into the hole. Repeat with any number of apples then float them in a decorative bowl full of water. I have a lovely apple green glass bowl that I like to use, but anything will do!
Cheers!
Sounds like a great day!! And I love Merrickville. We live about 5 min away in Oxford Mills between M-ville and Kemptville. I’ll have to check out that orchard next time we go picking.