Apple picking

Christopher and I love apples. We love them the way that some people love cars or wine or coffee. We get seriously into our apples. So every year, when apple season comes, we have a tradition of going apple picking not once but twice! This weekend was the first.

Every on Columbus Day weekend, we go to Applecrest. It's a PYO apple orchard in Exeter, N.H. with the usual harvest festivities. (Applecrest is, incidentally, the apple orchard where John Irving worked summers when he was a boy at Phillips-Exeter and bears a striking resemblance to the orchard in "Cider House Rules.") We usually get several gallons of cider, a couple pecks of apples, and have lunch.

Lunch is hot dogs and grilled corn. It's really good grilled corn. And cider doughnuts in cinnomon afterwards.

May, obviously, didn't have the hot dogs or the corn or even the doughnuts, but she did enjoy the crowds and the music and gnawing on an apple core. Christopher and I discovered a new apple -- the Milton. It's an old-fashioned apple not so much for out of hand eating as for baking. Soft flesh, complex flavor, lots of grassy and floral notes, and not terribly sweet. We bought half pecks of those and some Cortlands for a batch of apple butter, four gallons of cider, and some quince jelly.


We also got her a most excellent hat.

After the apple picking (and the drive home and May's nap) we continued our harvest festival theme with a trip into Harvard's big street fair. It was a lot loud, so we didn't see much, but we did get May another excellent hat (we've been losing hats lately) and pick up stuff for a nice fondue later in the week. The guy with the candy apples who is usually at that fair wasn't there this year.