In true Canadian fashion, the day started off with coffee from Tim Horton's. After a half hour drive out of the city, we arrived at Quinn Farm, a U-pick farm popular with Montrealers. We took a hayride, oohed and ahhed over the manual apple peeler/corers in their little shop, and visited their farm animals (complete with a huge donkey who did the most cartoonish "hee-haw" I think I've ever heard.)
Most importantly, of course, was the picking. This was so nice for two preschoolers and two toddlers! I often find that events that welcome young children are not really geared toward them; the kids are too young to take part themselves. Not so in this case. The apples were hanging so low to the ground that even the two year olds were able to pick as many apples as they wanted.
Here are both of my girls entering the orchard:
Ninna and her friend, hand in hand, looking for the right tree from which to start picking:
Ninna practicing the "turn the apple up towards the sky" method we were trained to do before being let loose into the lanes of trees:
Time to take a rest and test out the apples:
Three hard-working harvesters:
When Bojey became tired of picking, she entertained herself by hiding under my skirt:
This was such a lovely pre-fall activity. The weather is starting to turn, but it was still warm enough for no jackets. We enjoyed harvesting the fruits that have been growing now all summer. And best of all, we came home with an enormous bag of apples to eat, cook with, and share.
4 comments:
What a lovely outing! I agree that apple picking is one of the best young children activities out there - they're in nature, learning, feeling useful, and having fun all at once!
I like that "turn the apple to the sky" method, too!
How fun! We've never gone apple-picking either (except the wild one in our yard, which are generally too tall for the kiddos and too sour to eat!). Maybe we'll try it this year.
Did they tell you how they get the apple trees to be so small? They're not a special breed or anything: they cut the tree down and then graft it back onto itself. The tree doesn't get enough nutrition from the roots up to the top to grow tall, but it does get enough to produce apples! I think that's so neat :) Oh, and make applesauce! We've tried this year and the apples are just not as good out here!
I picked my first apples this year too. Then made sauce and butter.
Post a Comment