Apples & Peaches & Pears, Oh My!

In early September, we gathered a bunch of boxes, piled the kids in the car, and drove an hour and a half east to Willcox, Arizona, for our (sort of) annual trip to Apple Annie's Orchard/Produce Garden.

It was the low prices for bulk produce that initially got me interested in Apple Annie's; thanks to them, I got started on my current home-canning habit. More than that, though, I absolutely love picking my own produce--there's something very satisfying about getting your food straight from the source. It must be the farming/gardening genes handed down to me from my father & grandfather. It's also educational (and fun) for the kids; we enjoy showing them where food comes from, and how it travels from the earth to the table.

Our first stop (as usual) was the produce garden, a few miles up the road from the orchard. Dark clouds gathered overhead, but it never rained--it was almost too bad, because it was a pretty hot day! Oh, well--we still enjoyed ourselves. Usually, I pick the peppers/tomatoes/etc. for my salsa at the produce garden, but since I canned my salsa earlier this year, we just decided to let the girls choose what they wanted to pick:

Here's Lorelai with one of our buckets (you pick these up at the garden entrance; if you're picking a LOT of food, they've got wheelbarrows too).

Celeste really enjoyed this part of the day...we got fresh green beans, chile peppers, a cucumber or two, and some summer squash.

After checking out at the produce garden, we drove back up the road toward the orchard--the larger & more developed portion of Apple Annie's:

Apple Annie's has over 10 different varieties of apple trees growing in their orchard, as well as peaches & several varieties of pears. Usually they had just grown Asian pears, but they finally have trees that grow Bartlett pears as well. Off to pick the fruit!

Yes, that IS a smile on Aurora's face. She really enjoyed the baby backpack!

Look at the beautiful peaches in those trees! Unfortunately, those particular trees were off-limits that day (as you can see by the string marking off the row). Nevertheless, we were still able to find enough peaches to satisfy us (but not a lot; they were pretty picked over by the time we arrived).

One of the tools Apple Annie's gives you is this neat "claw" that can reach up to the tops of the trees & yank out high-hanging fruit--which then falls into the small basket below the claw. We were able to get a lot of apples this way...

Lorelai was a big help getting the peaches & pears. Here she is sitting next to our fruit buckets. The pears in particular (on the right) were DELICIOUS. I already love Bartlett pears, but wow...these were super-sweet and amazingly good. I will definitely get these next time!

We also bought lunch while at Apple Annie's...some pretty delicious apple-wood-smoked hamburgers. Tasty...

...but not as tasty as dessert: apple-cherry pie with a MASSIVE scoop of ice cream on top:

Mmmm...it makes my arteries thicken just looking at it, but it was worth every bite.

That night, after returning home, I was feeling ambitious, so I whipped up an impromptu dinner with some of our fresh-picked produce:

Sliced peaches & cucumbers, along with a cheesy squash/zucchini casserole. Delicious!

We were pretty pooped out after a hot day picking fruits & vegetables, but we were still very satisfied with the results. We may wait another year or so before returning to Apple Annie's (we're thinking of letting our kids get a bit bigger first), but we'll still be excited to come back. It was very satisfying to live off the land...even if only for one day! (And even if it's not technically our land, haha!). Thanks, Apple Annie's!