Fall is in the air!

Fall is FINALLY here, with temperatures in the 60s!  I am so excited.  Fall is my favorite season, and it reminds me of growing up in Maine.  But nothing will ever be as beautiful as the foliage of the Maine trees.  Nothing.  And I miss that so much.  And to honor those, I few pics I took a couple of years ago when I was visiting home.

But this being DC, we have to make do with what we have, and what we have are pick-your-own-apples apple orchards about an hour outside of the city!  Last weekend included Columbus Day on Monday, and that gave Hubsters a three day weekend.  Months ago I put "go apple picking" on the calendar so we would remember to go this year, and we went on Monday.

In my 8 years here in DC, I've been to a few different orchards and apple festivals, and one of my favorites is Stribling Orchards in Markham, VA.  So, after dropping a friend off at the airport early Monday morning, we headed out I-66 to Stribling.

It was a little cold, and drizzly, but we made it, and had a wonderful time!!

Apple picking is one of those things where you can really only pick so many, because, in reality, what are you going to do with all those apples?  Well, Hubsters and I really didn't think through this very well, because we picked a bushel and a half of apples, which translates to about 45 pounds.  Yes, 45 pounds.  When we had them in the car, it didn't look like much.

But when we got them home and put them on the counter, I went, "What am I going to do with all these apples???"  The gallon of milk is in the picture to help give you some perspective of size of the bags.

Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do with those apples.  I'm going to cook them.

I made a batch of apple sauce yesterday, and I've got another one simmering on the stove this afternoon.  It's my mom's super-secret recipe.  But not so secret that I wouldn't share it with you as I've already given it to my mother-in-law and the check-out lady at Stribling.

I have a recipe for apple butter in the crock pot that I'm going to try out this weekend after a friend from church loans me her apple peeler.

Other things I intend to make:

• More apple sauce - it freezes so well and we love it
• Apple bread
• Apple cake
• Apple cookies
• Apple pie for Hubsters
• Did I mention more apple sauce?

Another friend from church gave me a wonderful suggestion today, which is to slice up all the apples and freeze them so that you can make apple pie later in the season.  I'm going to try that one too.

It's fall, and that means apples, and pumpkins, and open windows and fresh air.  It's my favorite time of year!