And so the weekend that began with swear words and tears, ended with fresh apple pie.
This morning we rose early to beat the heat. We strapped on our picking bags, climbed our orchard ladders, and we picked, and we picked, and we picked. We filled our bags, then we filled our crates, and then it took two of us to carry each crate to the car.
Red apple deliciousness. Crunchy with that perfect apple balance of sweet and sharp.
After the day before, we felt better and happier with each apple we gently pulled from the tree.
When the girls got tired they climbed a tree and made a pulley system with some rope and a tin can and me and Bren took turns emptying the apples out at the bottom.
And we thanked the trees for their abundance of apples and the birds for leaving some alone.
And after all of us, including Jo Jo had eaten our fair share, we stacked the full crates in the cool room.
If organic farming is a roller coaster, it's great to be back up the top for a while.
Thank you guys so much for your comments on my last post. Your own stories and your kind words really helped me feel better.
We'll keep picking this week. And eating. And baking.
I hope you have the most delicious week to come.
I hope you get the perfect balance of crunch and sweet.
xx
That's some better news. I love apple pie and hope that you eat as much as you desire all season long.
ReplyDeleteYum, I can almost smell the apple pie! Love your work Kate & family x
ReplyDeleteAll it needs is a dollop of fresh cream! The apples look amazing!
ReplyDeleteSophie xo
Good for you! I bet it was delicious too.
ReplyDeleteYay good news! :) do know where I can find an online directory of organic farmers that sell to the public? Via thier farm or markets? I'm never able to find a large range of organic produce at our local ones :/
ReplyDeleteI love that Jo Jo loves apples!
ReplyDeleterachel xo
Oh that looks amazing. I felt so sad after your last post but have such a deep deep respect for you organic farmers. Power to you sweet people xxx
ReplyDeletehttp://mindfullygreen.blogspot.com.au
I felt completely devastated for you after your last post. I'm glad this one reflects a good day! Thankyou for sharing, especially the bad days in farming. As a society we need to be reminded just how much love and effort go into producing nutritious and delicious food but I think we also need to see the images of the negatives. I read your 'swear' post just after stewing some apples that were going soft and it was a great reminder and reinforcement for me to remember to limit our waste, and use what we have. It is like the article a while back that reported Orange farmers having to plow their fruit back in because it costs to much to sell them. Its a sad day when so much food goes to waste, yet people are starving and farmers are not being paid rightly.
ReplyDeleteThankyou, chin up, there'll be some apples for pie yet it seems!!
Lauren
x
Hi Kate. The pie looks delicious in the lovely enamel baking dish and I love your pretty pink Meakin Rosa plate in the background!! Glad you are all cheered up!! Love Julie
ReplyDeleteThe apples look beautiful, and your photos. Sorry to hear about your loss, farming can be devastating!
ReplyDeleteSoo beautiful photos and yummy apples too. Your dog like the sweet taste of an apple to?
ReplyDeleteNothing beats a new season apple, fresh or cooked. I want apple pie for breakfast now, hoping the hubby will oblige me when he wakes up!
ReplyDeleteI truly am in awe of farmers, I'm so glad your up the top again, those apples look delicious! x
ReplyDeleteSo glad you had a better day - my heart went out to you after reading your last post. Nature (well, birds) can be so unreasonable at times. Your apples look so good and your apple pie - yummo!
ReplyDeleteThat apple pie looks delicious. I'm so glad you got to harvest before the birds did it for you. Farming is certainly a challenge, but we need more of you, so hang on in there if you possibly can!
ReplyDeletewow. i cannot imagine what a roller coaster ride that life truly must be. i so appreciate the work that your family and so many others do though. beautiful pictures!!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you are getting some apples.
ReplyDeleteTry netting the apples next year. You can net them separately or you can net them in rows. We net in rows and I've never seen a cockatoo get through the net. It doesn't take much every year to net them, one year we had only my husband put the nets over two rows himself.
I think permanent netting isn't great because you want the birds to come in and eat other insects off the trees during the off season.
The apple pie looks great!
How's the wood stove/oven going in the summer? I'd really like to hear how it has gone.
A new day and the brightness shines through.
ReplyDeleteI hope your harvest is safe, they look delicious.
Good luck.
Robyn
I'm so glad that you still got a crop of apples. Your pie looks super yummy!
ReplyDeleteOhh those apples look amazing, I'm glad the rest of the weekend went well for you!
ReplyDeleteYour apples look amazing! I'm so glad to hear that you got some crates filled :-)
ReplyDeleteHope the rest of your week goes beautifully,
Sarah xx
Yummy scrummy apple pie. The cockies decimated our apple tree too - first real harvest is year and they destroyed it like yours. We only had one tree ready though, not row upon row. I cried. I'm sure that you did too.
ReplyDeleteHiya... would love to hear more about how you store, freeze, keep your produce and how long for etc...! Does that make sense?????
ReplyDeleteSo ready for rain...
No, Thank YOU for sharing something bad, awful and frustrating but then returning to the grateful, the good and the hopeful. If you can do this then we all can and it's so important in this day and age of "sensationalistic news" to get a bit of perspective and see REAL struggles met with REAL courage and then soothed with REAL apple pie. Have you considered running a small B&B - rustic, boutique and with the proviso that guests help and learn. Of course then you HAVE to feed them with cake and tea :-) ....
ReplyDeleteMe first!! ♥♥♥
The pie looks lovely! I have just made pies too - peach ones and apple ones. I too would love to hear how you use lots of apples up for yourself. What do you make with them other than this lovely pie?
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and I love to read about your organic farm. I am so sorry to read about the birds; we had a similar thing with our bees. Birds used to come and eat them! They do not come anymore due to global warming,I guess. They may have changed their migration routes. I wish organic farming was possible in my country too but till it is so, I will be continuing reading your blog
ReplyDeleteOh hooray for the birds leaving you some gorgeous apples! I hate how wasteful they are, only taking a couple of bites out of each one and tossing the rest away. That apple pie looks really delicious, and you certainly earned it. Organic farming might sound like a dream, but the reality of climbing endless ladders and carrying heavy crates all day would certainly make it a little less romantic at least!
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful blog...glad to hear that this apple day was better than last.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would give to dine on one of those apples of yours. Wow. They look soooo good. And apples in Sydney at the moment are soooo bad.
ReplyDeleteGlad to read things are back up on top x
My goodness! Now I have the sudden urge to make apple pie. So glad to see you were able to get this harvest. You are such an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteSophie xx
Oh, so glad to read this post after the last one!!
ReplyDeleteThose apples look so yummy - wish I lived close enough to buy some from you .
xx
P.s that dog photo is hilarious! Hard work being an apple-eating puppy :)
Delete