Pumpkins

I have officially helped Edison in becoming infatuated about pumpkins this Halloween season. I taught him songs, read him books, "It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown" has even made it to his favorite movie list. When you ask him what he dreamt about the night before, he'll say "pumpkins." Mission accomplished. So, here is a little video of Edison singing one of my favorite pumpkin carols, "Mr. Jack-o-lantern."

Grape picking and Juice making.

Apparently there is a lot of fruit to be picked out here. I had a friend from the ward invite Edison and I to come out to a grape orchard to pick our own concord grapes with the goal to make our own grape juice. This was not an opportunity that I wanted to miss out on...me making my own grape juice? Of course!

It was about an hour and half to the orchard, and fall was just beginning to creep in. It made for a beautiful drive.

Edison loved that grapes were finally for once not on a high refrigerator shelf, but just at the very touch of his fingertips. He ate plenty off the vine, and I encouraged it.

The orchard.

These grapes tasted just like how grapes should taste. None of this store bought plastic bag grape taste, but the real thing. The grape flavor that every candy, or juice, or soda tries to imitate, except these were real, and they were good.

In the end my friend and I picked at total of 110lbs of grapes. Give me a toga, and a vine for my head and I'm legit! I ended up taking a share of 30lbs at the total tally of $7.50.

Wow. I never thought I'd learn to can, fruits, veggies, tuna, ANYTHING. But here I am in my little kitchen with my hand picked 30lbs of grapes making my very own grape juice concentrate. I felt like I could take on the world. I will say however, that it's a lot of work, and something that I probably won't feel like doing till next year when I get nostalgic for the experience. I could of made a whole entire Thanksgiving dinner by the time I got through the last of the grapes.

However, the joy and pride I felt when I placed these 12 jars of hand picked, concord grape juice jars in my basement was unexplainable. Hand me the wheat, give me the grinder and I'll make you some bread. I did it, and boy was it delicious in every way.

Apple Picking

One of our first fall adventures was apple picking at Becker Farms. It was the classic apple picking experience and we couldn't have asked for more. Here are some pictures to highlight.

Here is Edison with his "stolen" apple that he took from the store while we were standing in line waiting to buy our apple picking bags. He promptly started to munch on it, and since there really was no use in giving back a half eaten apple and because there LITERALLY were apples scattered all along the floors, we figured he could just keep it. But doesn't he look guilty in this picture? We ended up eating the rest of it after his three or four bights.

And here is the apple orchard DRIPPING with apples. I had this adrenaline rush seeing all the apples everywhere... like the kind of rush you get at a buffet line when you feel like you need to try everything. I felt like I needed to grab all the apples I could.

Beautiful, delicious apples.

Edison was off like a shot, picking up all the half eaten apples on the ground and giving them a try. I think he had the same kind of adrenaline rush I had.

After our bags were stuffed with apples we stopped off at the pumpkin patch. Edison has been obsessed with pumpkins this fall (probably on my doing) and was thrilled to finally be in a real pumpkin patch.

He was also thrilled for the chance to sit on the big red tractor. He talks about it to this day.



Here are the fruits of our labor. We savored every one of those delicious apples. I made a fine apple crisp, and the rest we gobbled up whole. Natures candy.