Rating: 💋 💋 😘
This story actually begins four years ago, when I was a smol college freshman and a girl I was talking to was absolutely appalled to find out that I had never been apple picking. From this serious gaping hole in my youth, she surmised tat I have not "experienced life."
Well, geez. That is a lot of pressure to put on some Honeycrisps but, umm, okeedokee.
I did not hightail it to the nearest orchard to correct my childhood. I did not feel anxious about it. Apple-picking sounded cute and I would be happy to do it someday.
Four years later, that day arrived. While picking apples sounded fun, mostly I was pumped about the apple cider doughnuts. I cannot even remember the last time I had one, but they just sound like a great idea. I marked my calendar, went to bed early on Friday night, and woke-up at 7:00 on Saturday morning (sleeping in a whole half hour more than during the work week!).
All for the love of apples.
My sister and I met two of her lovely friends from college, Jonna and Sophie, at Port Authority to board the bus to Warwick. Tickets in hand, we were dismayed to find out that the line for the bus went all the way from the door to the opposite wall and looped around again. A frat bro actually elbowed me and tried to cut once bus entry was allowed! The nerve! Don't worry, I stood my ground. I got on the bus. The bus was so crowded that we were standing in the aisle, but still, we got on. A good portion of the mob in the wait line were not so lucky.
We got seats eventually, once the bus cleared out, and we made it to Warwick.
Pro-Tip: Google Maps says the orchard is a four-minute Uber from the bus stop. That's a cute idea and all, but Uber does not really service that area of upstate New York. Let me tell ya, the taxi driver of Warwick was making bank! He saved so many of us forlorn apple-pickers from having to hitchhike and getting dragged into this October's next horror film. We had to hang out on the curb for forty-five minutes until he could pick us up, but at least we got there.
After the transportation snafu of the morning, we were sure to schedule him to pick us up and get us back to the bus stop with ample time to catch the 4:05 to New York. As lovely as Warwick was, Stranded In Warwick was also not a film we had any interest in playing in. As a result of the delay getting to the orchard, as well as the necessity to hightail it out of there by a certain time, we really only had an hour and a half to enjoy the Orchard.
That is half the time it took to get there in the first place. I don't really want to talk about it.
But we got there! The place was full of fall decorations, babies, and puppies! What more could a girl ask for? The flannel attire-wearing masses were congregating with joyful hearts and cups full of hot apple cider. I partook. I got a cup. I got two cute little apple cider doughnuts as well. I called it lunch. The cider was delicious and warmed me up (the bus driver decided the air conditioner needed to be on arctic mode in mid-October - makes sense). The doughnuts were a bit drier than I would have liked, and I might just prefer cinnamon sugar doughnuts to apple cider actually if we're thinking fall desserts, but they were still pretty tasty. I decided to be crazy and dip my doughnut in the cider, just to try. It solved the dry issue and tasted good, but I found it sacrificed some of the cinnamon, so I went back to the original.
Once we were warmed and fed, we got our peck bags and hit the apple trail.
It dawned on me as we wandered through the orchard that this was my first time seeing apple trees in real life. I grew up in the middle of the Pine Barrens, I am not totally urbanized here, but the closest I had come to actual apple trees was The Wizard of Oz. Those trees were taller but these ones were a lot friendlier. I'll take it. Also, the air was stained with the sweet aroma of apple sugar and I was very into that. The late heat wave in September had thrown off the apple-ripening schedule though, so many of them had matured too early and already fallen to the ground. It was a shame to see all the waste. It was also a bit disappointing that none of the trees were labeled, so I had no idea what I was picking. I just went off how they looked in comparison to supermarket apples.
Anyway, it was a good time wriggling through branches, checking apples for scars and worm holes (tap to make sure they are worm free! Jonna warned us of that), and picking the best ones. Plus, the company was good. That is always key.
All in all, I got five apples for $2, pretty sweet! Actually, I spent five times the amount of money on transportation than I did at the Apple Orchard, so the learning curve was that next year we are going to rent a car, drives ourselves (quicker trip), and avoid the bus/cab chaos entirely. Still, there was something very charming about the four of us hanging out on a street curb waiting for an hour until the bus to New York rounded the corner and retrieved us. Plus, the ride back was only two hours, rather than three, which was lovely, and I really enjoyed my conversations with Jonna, Sophie, and Shannon. That's what it's all about, isn't it? The apples? Eh, they're secondary. Yay for cute fall observations. This weekend was too wholesome, I'm turning into a sap ahh (but really, they're great)
I have eaten three so far so I can attest to their quality. I had a bright red and green one with peanut butter Sunday at lunch and I worried it would be too acidic, but not the case. It was sweet and crisp and I have no idea what kind it was, but it made some of my supermarket hauled apples look like sissies. Only complaint: it was not quite as crunchy as I would have liked. Fortunately, the apple I had Monday - brighter and pinker, reminiscent of a Honeycrisp but smaller - had that crunch as well as the sweet, juicy flavor and I ate it straight up. Today's breakfast was the best of both worlds with a dark green and pink, crunchy apple with peanut butter making my Tuesday morning absolutely delicious.
Overall, I am super happy with the apples I hunted down and captured at Apple Dave's Orchard and I would totally go again. Same company, same apples, just, with a rented car.
Then again, if we had rented a car we would have missed out on watching the taxi driver lose his mind at the fourteen-year old "employee" who was too busy doing baton twirls with his orange flag to direct traffic, inciting our driver to zoom the car around the lane and past the shocked adolescent. That is the hole in my life that needed to be filled. I needed that moment.
So I guess now I truly can say I have experienced life. And with my wisdom and old age, I bid you a good night.
XX,
MK
Comments