Meridell Park Apples

One of the joys of fall is picking fruit.

My Dad loves fruit trees. 

When my parents were looking for a home,

they wanted space enough for an orchard.

After living in their home for a while, they counted their fruit trees one day.

The count was 60 or more trees.

If having one orchard wasn't enough,

Grandpa Kirkham had another orchard.

Meridell Park's orchard has many, many trees 

- apple, white peach, pear.

We wanted Underfoot and Hurricane to know 

where some of our favorite foods come from 

and how to to pick, juice, and preserve apples.

The boys climbed in the trees to pick the apples.

The climbing wasn't always easy.

We picked clean 14 of the many trees available.

If we had had more time, we would have picked the entire orchard.

Mr. Awesome had pruned some of the trees very well.

The fruit on these trees was huge, sweet, and heavy.

A parable is told about having trials and that it is like God is pruning us

because when great efforts have been put forth 

then to have a trial to come and clip that experience away.

The parable goes on to say that pruning is necessary for 

the greatest blessings.

The boys loved climbing the trees and ladders. 

After picking for an entire morning, they were tired. 

Picking apples is the hardest part of processing or just eating.

They were hard workers and for that I am grateful.

We took an 8 foot trailer being optimistic to fill it to the top!

The sides are probably 3 foot.

Our optimism was greater than the time we had to spend.

We boxed up 5 banana boxes full of apples after juicing

with still a few apple left to be juiced by my brother and his wife.

Pressing apples is a lot of fun.

The apples are washed, 

chopped in the press' shredder, 

smooched with the pressing tool, 

pasteurized, and canned.

Our nieces came and helped.

Dark Hair stuck with me to end. We call the juice liquid gold.

In the end, we came home with 16 gallons of juice.

 We packed up 5 banana boxes full of apples.

We shared 4 of the 5 boxes and came home to can applesauce.

I still have a few left to put into a pie for the pie party.

We are grateful the apples were shared with us!

Thanks to my brothers, their wives, and children for hosting us!