Recently my wife and I went to pick some apples the day the organic orchard was open for harvesting. There were three types of apples from which to choose: 1) Honeycrisp (a personal favorite), 2) Gala and, 3) Golden Delicious. My favorite is Honeycrisp, so that’s mostly what we picked.
If you’ve never eaten an apple ripened on a tree you’re missing out on a tremendous flavor experience. Store bought apples just don’t compare. For example, I find Golden Delicious apples bought from a store to be bland and uninteresting, so I haven’t bought them in decades. The Golden Delicious from the trees of this orchard were packed with amazing flavor so we got some of them as well.
We picked about 60 pounds worth of apples that day. Besides sharing some with friends and eating them fresh, we’ve been busy freeze drying them. The sweetness and flavor of the apple seems to be enhanced by freeze drying process. Properly freeze-dried and stored food has a shelf life of over 25 years, so they essentially last forever.
In case you’re interested, these photos were taken at Mountain View Orchards. It’s owned and run by a very nice family and excellent quality fruit. The orchard grows cherries (which we’d picked in July) in addition to the apples.
