My favorite fall activity is definitely picking apples, and living in the midwest means apple orchards galore. We are partial to Legend Hills Orchard, which is a little further from our house than other orchards, but it’s also right down the road from the Velvet Ice Cream factory. Apples. Ice cream. *sigh* All the makings for a perfect afternoon.

Along with being an apple orchard, Legends (I like to think we’re on a first name basis) is also a farmers market and pumpkin patch. Naturally, we had to get a couple pumpkins to go along with our 40 pounds of picked apples because helllooooo we have a minivan! It’s made for tiny humans and all the stuff they collect 🙂 Anyways, back to the apples. Our main apple usage is making sauce and crisp, so we picked a variety of flavorful apples – Cortland, Jonagold, Jonathan, Mutsu, and Winesap.

Eli and Ava were apple-picking champs! First time we actually remembered to grab one of the tall apple picking pole things from the farm before going into the orchards, so that was a huge help. And for the first time ever….drumroll please….Eli ATE an apple!!! Not the whole thing – let’s not get crazy here – but he tried every single variety of apple we picked. This is the kid who sticks to carbs, peanut butter, and more carbs. Unbelievable! So, overall, a very successful day of apple picking. Now home to make some goodies!