Autumn Apples

Do you remember learning this Johnny Appleseed Prayer as a child?  I do and my momma says she does, too.  So, the week we studied apples and the letter A, I had to teach it to my kiddos, too.  They loved it... it's such a sweet little song (and to think that Disney put this one together! -albeit in 1948).

I think Apple week has been the most fun so far.  We started the week early by going to pick apples with my mom and sister and (of course) baby Finley.  Now, I thought I was being smart.  Earlier in the week, our home school group had gone out to an orchard I'd been to before in Butler County (on a Wednesday- so we were unable to go with them) only to arrive and be told their apples weren't ripe for the picking.  Now, to me, if you're going to schedule a group of kids to come and pick apples in your orchard, you had better call and cancel (or at least give the moms who are driving all the way out to pick apples the option to cancel) if your apples aren't ripe.  But from what I understand, they didn't.  So I got back on pickyourown.org and found another orchard in Sumner county that did have apples to pick.

We had a lovely time. 

The morning was nice, we got some lovely pictures. 

The kids were enjoying themselves immensely until my mom noticed that my kids were knee deep in poison ivy!  In fact, as we were quickly rushing back to the car to leave, we noticed that all the trees had a lovely blanket of poison ivy under them!  Ack!  Very fortunately, we were able to wash up quickly and none of us (including my highly allergic mom and sis) ended up with a rash.  However, I wouldn't suggest anyone try the place unless they are particularly fond of poison ivy.  So, does anyone else know of a place next year for us to try who will let people know before they arrive that they don't have apples ready to pick... and also that doesn't think that poison ivy makes a lovely ground cover under their trees?  I'd love your suggestions on that one because I love the idea of making apple picking a yearly event but would like to find a new location in Sedgwick County or the surrounding area.

Some of our activities during Apple Week included:

Making Apple Crisp

Eating Apple Crisp topping before it had a chance to make it on the crisp.

Making Applesauce (Next time I'll remember to have jars ready for canning so we don't end up having to eat applesauce at every single meal for a week.)

 Taste-testing a large variety of apples- (From l to r) Honey Crisp, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Gala.

 Our winner ended up being the Jonathan -the kids favorite and my second (my favorite was the Honey Crisp).  I was pleased with this consensus because Jonathans are great for baking with and they're so affordable... of course, maybe the kids like them so much because I buy them all the time and it's what they're familiar with.  (Either way, I'll take it!) How about you?  What's your favorite apple?