Nov 14 2008
Photo Friday: North Dakota Apple Harvest
The latest overnight trip I made with the kids was to my parents’ farm in eastern North Dakota. It’s a 6-hour trip, and one that we’ve made many times. Some trips home are short, or packed with activities, but this time we had a free day so I offered to help Mom and Dad pick the apples from their tree.
My uncle came over to run the “farmhand”, an ancient tractor with a loader bucket that looks innocent enough but really goes quite high. (I spent many an hour in the farmhand, painting the big white barn, when I was in high school.)
Once we were up at the top of the tree, I remembered that I don’t like heights any more, so my apple-picking was done one-handed while I hung on for dear life with the other.
This 30-year-old Haralson tree was loaded with apples. Its twin didn’t have as many so we left it alone this year. We kept only the best apples, leaving many hanging on the tree for the birds and throwing some to the ground for the deer that congregate in the yard. Even being choosy about the ones we kept, we did very well. We ended up with nine 5-gallon pails and several peach boxes of crisp, sweet-tart apples. The standing joke for the rest of the trip was to ask everyone we saw if they needed any apples. (The answer was always “no” because all the neighbors had good apple crops of their own this year.)
Who needs an orchard when you have Mom and Dad?
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Mmm, Haralsons. I sure do miss those tart, crispy, midwestern apples this time of year (as well as caramel dipping sauce!).
What are you doing to do with them? Are you an apple butter fan?
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Haven’t made apple butter, but we do a lot of baking–apple bars, apple crisp, etc. I need to make a batch of pumpkin-apple muffins; ’tis the season for them!
Linda
I’m laughing Linda. Our (baby) apple tree had 7 apples on it this year, and we were psyched.
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Sounds like a great day!
We’ve been going to the cider mill weekly here, but that season ends Thanksgiving weekend
Grocery store cider and apples just aren’t the same, are they?
Your post actually brought a tear to my eye. My grandmother had an orchard in her backyard and I have such happy memories of the family getting together and using her wooden cider press to make cider (it was unpasturized and was so phenomenally good).
There is nothing, nothing like fresh apples. When I was a kid I used to come home from school and eat six of them before dinner while I read Little Women. Thanks for this post and the pictures.
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Oh, I miss the apple orchards of the Midwest. I can almost smell it… Thanks for the beautiful photos!
What a lovely day. We’ve always been shy about putting fruit-bearing trees in our back yard (the cherry trees that sprout up like weeks are challenging enough for us) but maybe we should reconsider.
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I love apple orchards, especially the donuts that come out of them!
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LOL about the donuts! Over the past 7 years, we’ve planted 10 apple trees in our yard. Our initial goal is to get enough to eat and use, and then we’re hoping to sell the extras at farmers’ markets as the kids get older and can help with it.
Excepting the old tree that came with the place, which makes great applesauce, we had three good apples off the 10 trees this year. We’re still waiting to hit the apple jackpot that my parents have!
On a side note, the other “tree” thing we’ve done for our kids is this: We planted a special tree for each of the kids the year they were born. Older son has an autumn blaze maple, younger son a greenspire linden, older daughter a snowsweet crabapple, and younger daughter an oak tree. Each summer we take a picture of them with their tree. It’s one of our favorite family traditions. I joke with hubby that if we ever move, we’re going to spend thousands of dollars to take those special trees with us!
Linda
Gorgeous photos! i love love apples, and to be IN the orchard is such a wonderful experience for all. having grown up in west michigan, the fruit capital of anywhere, i just love all the family orchards, and wonderful, wonderful fruit. what a great trip!
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I remember picking apples as a child: in the grounds of a disused castle. I’m sure the orchard was originally planted in the 16th or 17th century. We has a much fun scaling up trees as playing on the (probably dangerous) castle ruins. Good memories.
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