Apple Picking Adventure

As if I couldn't see the trees (okay, I couldn't)

A few weeks ago, my girlfriends and I went apple picking at Homestead Farms.  We desperately tried to make it feel like fall but September tends to still be a bit muggy around DC so instead, I worked up quite a sweat since I insisted on wearing wool.

Farm fresh produce people!

It's so incredibly wonderful to get out in the country.  Even though we were only about 30 miles outside DC, it felt like a whole other world.

Besides the livestock and the ability to pick apples off of trees there was fresh produce.  Lots of it.  And it was so inexpensive.  If more of us had cars, Whole Foods would totally be out of business.  I bought peppers, potatoes, apples, cucumbers, fresh bread and a pumpkin for around $15.  Even at Safeway or Giant, that would have been at least $25.

Oh, you know.  Just hanging with the goats.

Unfortunately, I always forget that I'm hardly home on weeknights and I don't really cook so most of that farm fresh food went to waste.  Without preservatives, the bread molded in about 3 days.  I ate the peppers and the cucumbers pretty quickly but kind of forgot that I don't love apples.  They're still  hanging around but I'll probably toss them soon. I'm currently using them as decor.  The potatoes perished in my attempt to make fresh mashed potatoes which I thoroughly botched and I'm still not sure how. 

Me, Jenny and our pumpkins in happier times.

The biggest disappointment was definitely the pumpkin.  Upon returning from Boston, I noticed that it looked a little bit funny.  I grabbed the stem and, plop, it came right off the pumpkin which had mysteriously decided to mold.  Now, I've had pumpkins before and usually they last about a month to six weeks.  This little guy just couldn't handle it and now I'm sadly pumpkin-less in October. 

Some of my apples.

For some reason, apple picking just wasn't something my family did when I was growing up.  It's so easy to get a little frenzied and pick as many apples as you can so I really had to watch it and contain my excitement, especially since, as stated above, I don't love apples. Now that it's finally cooled down a bit more, I recommend the trip.  It's a fun afternoon with fresh air and everything is wonderful when you go with friends, right?