Applerama!

Apple foods I ate this week:

• Applesauce
• Apple Brownies
• Apple Cake
• Apple Cider
• Apple-Carrot Muffins
• Apple Butter
• Apple Pancakes
• Fruit Salad (with apples as the only fruit)
• Dried Apples
• Peanut Butter & Apple Sandwich
• Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
• Apples!

Apple foods I still want to eat:

• Caramel Apples
• Apple Crepes
• Apple Dumplings
• Apple Strudel
• Apple Pizza (don’t knock it till you’ve tried it)
• Apple Cobbler
• Apple Juice
• Hard Apple Cider
• Apple Pie—duh!
  

I was warned many times that life on this farm would get crazy when the apple harvest began. I don’t think that warning could be overstated.

Back in August, we picked three or four trees of Jonamacs and Livelend Raspberry apples that ripened early. Last week, about 80% of the trees in the orchard started dropping fruit. Once an apple tree starts dropping, it has to be picked fast before everything ends up rotting on the ground. Now we spend long days plucking a wide variety of Summer Reds, Early Golds, State Fairs, Discoveries and the occasional mystery apple. Only Spartans, Galas and Honeycrisps still remain for a late season harvest.

It takes a long time to pick an apple tree—at least for me, anyway. I’m getting faster, but I’m also still working on the technique of twisting the apple just right so that I don’t take the spur off with it. Pulling off a spur means no apple will grow at that spot next year. I’m also reminded frequently to be gentler when unloading my apple bag into baskets on the ground to prevent bruising. I’d like to think that means I’m stronger than I realize, but even after hauling apple bags and boxes all day long my arms are still quite puny (my secret is that I look fit if I wear enough layers).

After picking throughout the morning and afternoon, we spend most of our evenings sorting the goods. Freshly picked apples are divided into three categories: big and pretty apples are sold at local farmer’s markets, small apples and apples with minor blemishes are sold for juicing at a local natural food store and anything worse than that is set aside for making applesauce and apple butter. You could say there’s a fourth category of “pig feed” for apples that are too ugly and rotted for sauce, but those get tossed into buckets as we’re picking.

I decided before I started WWOOFing that I should only work on farms that grow food I want to eat, and that turned out to be one of my wiser decisions. I love apples, and I’d say I consume close to a dozen a day while working in the orchard—not including the apple baked goods and entrées served at meals. I only eat the smaller, less salable fruits while picking, but that’s still a lot. I definitely have no shortage of boron in my blood these days.

If anyone knows any potential health hazards of overdosing on apples, please feel free to drop a line. I once went through a carrot addiction phase in college and my skin turned a noticeable orange color as a result. Another time, I ate way too many prunes thinking more would only be healthier, and because I want you to keep reading this blog I won’t go into the details of what happened next. I’ve learned to be careful to avoid eating too much of the same food, but after a couple weeks on the apple diet I feel pretty good. Nonetheless, I still have a mild fear that I’ll wake up one day to find out that all my toenails have fallen off or that my skin will start melting like that guy in Robocop. Can anyone relate?