Trippin’ on Fruit: Apple Orchards and Pumpkin Patches

A family day at the apple orchard is like work, and you're paid in cider doughnuts that you have to buy.

This past weekend my husband and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard. Everyone loves this time of year, with all of suburbia marching like ants in a line to the farmland for hayrides, corn mazes, and eat their weight in cider doughnuts.

Growing up in an agricultural community, I did just enough apple, cherry, and asparagus picking as a kid to know that it isn’t fun. It’s work. People actually get paid for what we all spend good money and weekend napping time to do. Trudging through an orchard, stepping over rotten fruit, and fighting crowd of other folks crazy enough to pick their own produce for sport? Add kids who fall in love with only the fallen, stepped on apples, kids who want to be carried halfway back through the orchard, and kids who have to poop the second we get as far away as possible from the porta potty, and it’s no wonder we need a smiling picture of fresh-faced children holding bright orange orbs to forget the horrors of the trenches of fruit picking. Overpriced bushels of apples and glossed over memories are our reward for ringing in fall the way Facebook demands.

In spite of my bad attitude, Saturday was beautiful. We were in shorts and tees, my husband didn’t have to work, and with the kids being older, I wouldn’t have to carry anyone. Our doorstep needed pumpkins, we love apples, and my husband’s enthusiasm for fruit picking had me excited for our day, even if I was only in it for the fresh air, hot chocolate, and photos.

We hit the pumpkin patch first. The kids talked the entire way about the gigantic, big-as-a-house pumpkins they were going to choose. We agreed supportively, letting them choose any pumpkin they wanted, as long as they could carry it to the car, because we’re geniuses, that’s why. As soon as my boy’s first large pumpkin crashed to the ground after two steps, so did the visions of monstrous pumpkins. Here are the pumpkins they carefully and happily chose to tote home.

pumpkin1

 Pumpkins secured, we hit the apple orchard, where no one had to poop, I only had to carry one kid for a few minutes, and there were enough apples on the trees to keep the kids from falling in love with the rejected fruit on the ground. My girl did slip on a rotten Gala, which made me laugh and pissed her off, but I won her affection back by allowing her to wipe her hands on my pants.

After paying for our apples, we headed home. We polished off two apples between the four of us, with the kids playing “Bite, bite, pass.” We adults shared a look and a smirk, remembering other things that are passed around fairly, and hoping our kids stick to apples.

We’ll visit the pumpkin patch again next year. I’m going to want to see how big of a pumpkin they can carry, and I like to laugh at my kids slipping and falling on decomposing fruit. Maybe the pumpkin patch is fun, after all.

pumpkin2

Did you go apple picking this year? Whip up a batch of this Easy Crock Pot Applesauce with your harvest!

Crock Pot Applesauce that is easy, sugar-free, and delicious!



14 thoughts on “Trippin’ on Fruit: Apple Orchards and Pumpkin Patches

  1. No one had to poop-now to me that’s definitely the sign of a good trip! 😀 I’m so glad you shared this-guess I wasn’t one of the six that read your blog back then, I must have been #7 to sign on! 😉

  2. I am still holding out on our trip to the pumpkin patch. My excuse is the warm California weather. “We don’t want them to rot before Halloween even get here!” Of course, I’ll be among the droves of other foolish parents that put it off until the last minute and have only the deformed leftover pumpkins to choose from. *sigh*

  3. Bite bite pass- made me laugh! What fun this day must have been, and your kids are gorgeous! We don’t have pumpkins on our front porch because there are too many wild critters that would eat them in the night. I will just enjoy everyone else’s-

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