Apple Picking Time

Fall must be just around the corner!

Last weekend, we decided to run up to the mountains of Flat Rock, NC to pick apples at Sky Top Orchard. It's a popular place to go in the Fall and is only an easy one hour drive directly north of Greenville. Helen had a great time learning about plucking apples from trees and pulling grapes from the vines. We took the obligatory picture of her in front of the "How Tall..." sign. I can see us getting more of these pictures over the years. It's too bad we didn't go last year, though.

It was a beautiful day, a little warm, but still very nice. We decided to go in the late afternoon which turned out to be a good time since it wasn't very crowded. We found a nice bar-be-que place to eat in Saluda, SC nearby for dinner after we had picked a peck of apples. A peck was just right; we decided to not go overboard since we can come back later in the season when there are other varieties to try out.

On this trip we picked the following types of apples: Honey Crisp, Mutsu, Gala, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith. Our favorite has been Fuji's for a long time, but they were not quite ready. The Honey Crisp was new to me, and pretty good (note, that it's name is very descriptive of the apple). The Mutsu was recommended by a friend and is very crisp, a little tart, a little sweet. The Granny Smith's to us are exclusisvely for making apple crisp, which Kim made for us Monday and has been a delicious treat all week!

They even have animals, too... Sheep, goats, peacocks, roosters, chickens, and rabbits. Helen has really been inerested in animals lately. She spotted the sheep and goats from across a huge field and practically yelled out, "Baaaah!"