Yesterday I shared with you a yummy recipe that was inspired by our weekend trip to the mountains of North Carolina, I don’t know about you but this was the first time I have picked my own apples, and I didn’t even pick a bag (hubby picked most) but I was exhausted. Today will be the first post that I will be talking about being in the shoes of a farmer.
We arrived at Skytop Orchard on a Friday afternoon. I checked the website and they said weekdays were better to pick because on the weekends the orchard gets packed early. So I made plans to apple pick on Friday figuring that technically it wasn’t the weekend. Boy was I wrong. The parking lot was packed so we had to park in the overflow lot across from the orchard. We approached not sure which way to go but we finally found our way inside and the you pick booth.
We paid the money to pick our apples and received a clear bag to put our apples in. That shattered my dreams of having a bushel basket of apples to show for all my hard work. I mean think of the photos that would have been showcased for this post. That was my first writer thought non-farmer thought. Even though the bushel basket looks better and gives off the right aesthetic in the long run it costs the farmer more than clear plastic bags. When the bottom line is about making money you have to cut costs somewhere. Did it make apple picking less enjoyable no? Did it take away from the experience- sort of but did it ruin the experience absolutely not? Can I live without that bushel basket yep and will I try to find another basket to take a picture of apples in probably!
So my second thought was man it is tough picking apples. We picked on the top of a mountain and I will get to that in a minute. But because the terrain was a little rough, you have to make sure you wear the proper shoes. Instead of thinking again about how things will look, you have to think about functionally. Sometimes you have to choose function over fashion.
My third thought it took quite of bit of time picking that bag full of apples. There had been a freeze so there was a limited variety available for u-pick so we had to walk around a lot to find apples to fill up half our bag. We gave up halfway and decided to just finish filling the bag from the bins at the stands. But as I passed by I saw all those apples scattered on the ground below the tree and some rotting on the branches, my heartfelt for the farmer. That is money out of their pockets. Money that could be used to feed their families, send their kids to college, and more. But then I also had a thought what an awesome idea to at least recoup some of their losses by opening up their orchards for people to pick their own apples.
Then I stopped and thought about how many times when we were picking the half bag of apples ( being honest here) did we stop and admire the view. I know we stopped at least 30 times if not more to either admire the view, snap a picture or just take in God’s handiwork. Y’all I don’t know if I am cut out to be an apple picker but I will tell you after an hour in the orchard I have a new respect for those that do. Will I pick my own apples again? Probably at a new orchard to see how they handle u-pick.
So these are my thoughts on apple picking. Tell me have you ever picked your own apples? If you have share your experiences below.