Organic apples. They are beautiful indeed. My Sister and I headed north 2 weeks ago to visit my Grandparent’s backyard orchard (total of 6 trees, I think?). I guess a small amount of trees is all you need for picking apples to last years and years and years off just one season. We helped our Grandpa pick about 3 bushels full that day. We were thankful for our time with them. And, of course, for free apples! (I honestly don’t know how they handled THAT many apples every day all season long for all those years! Wow! Thanks to Grandma for all those yummy pies and applesauce! There’s nothing like it!)
We brought them home. And they sat for a few days on the front porch. I guess I was apprehensive about the coming days being penned up in the kitchen dicing apples all day. Ha!
As my considerate hubby recommended, when I pulled my courage together 3 days later, I set up an outdoor kitchen cutting/slicing/prepping/soaking area in our back yard. Except for playing the dodgems with the bees and mosquitoes wanting to attack my apples nearby, it was a very pleasant and fun day outside there in that space. The smell of apples, the tasting of many, the excitement of anticipating what the coming batch of applesauce will taste like….heaven I am sure.
Nathan was such a delight! He didn’t seem to mind playing outside for 2 hours straight while Mommy cut up one of the bushels of apples nearby. He kept super busy:
He ate his weight in apple cores (oh yes, he prefers the cores, minus the seeds dug out). Maybe he liked the challenge? Hmm… He would come ask me for apple, which sounded like “aps” and looked like him motioning “please”. He then so care freely went over and sat on the the railway ties (edge of our garden) to enjoy his snack. Oh. so. cute!
And he played in the water.
And played with the Ethicon water irrigator spray gun that Daddy brought home from work (a disposable, unused surgical supply….hubs is an outstanding and very experienced surgical technologist at our local hospital). Nathan loves this “toy,” and loves spraying it around the yard. Daddy is the best! Bringing home cool toys that no other kid will (probably ever) be able to have!