Honey Crisp Opening Day

Have you had a Honey Crisp apple? Super Yum!

I never heard of Honey Crisp until I moved here, and you can only get them at the store for about a month every year, at about $3 plus per pound. BUT...if you can get them at the orchard, where you pay by the bag and not the type of apple, you are in luck. Plus, they are even more lovable when they are fresh picked. Our big annual apple extravaganza is on October 3rd (if you are local, you are invited), but by then Honey Crisps will be gone. They always get picked out in one hour. After that you may get a few of the stragglers, but the big juicy BEST ones are long gone. This year we decided to brave Honey Crisp opening day.

The forecast called for NASTY, but we knew it was our only chance, so we set out anyway. We even dragged the Hawley girls along. We actually adopted them for the weekend since Mike was out of town. We made the 45 minute drive, sat in line to get into the orchard for about the same amount of time, and walked out into the drizzly rain to fill our bags. And then BOOM, the sky released Lake Michigan on our heads. We ran with kiddos and dove into Jen's car, not paying any attention to the 85 billion muddy blades of grass we dragged in on our shoes (sorry!). Luckily they have a DVD player and the kids watched Toy Story for 30 minutes until we were back down to a light drizzle. By then Seth, who stayed out in the downpour, had filled one bag and we just had to fill the other as a team.

Toting two bushels of apples, we wandered down the road to another orchard where they make the best donuts in the world. The rain had stopped, and the kids played on the wet playground while Seth stood in line for 30 minutes to get 2 dozen HOT donuts. These donuts are the best. I look forward to them all year. So greasy and crispy around the edges. Lovely! We also loaded up on cheese. This orchard offers the best cheese I've ever tasted, too. Good cheese in Wisconsin? Go figure. I know we go to a lot of orchards, but they each offer something that we just can't pass up.

It was a fun day and we had some good laughs about dragging our selves out in to the elements. But....fun with friends, donuts, cheese, two drawers full of Honey Crisp apples....so worth it!

Warning: This will not be the last post this year about apple orchards.

The one picture I took before the flood gates broke. I had my waterproof camera.

Thankfully everyone had time to pick one apple before we headed for the car, so we had a snack while we waited out the storm.

Our return to the orchard

Watching cider being made

Anyone else think the smashed apples look like refried beans?

The close-up of the donuts was only mildly obsesive. This is where I take the donut love too far. A close-up of my half eaten donut!

Do you see the light fluffly centers on each side? And then how there is a darker yellow figure 8, down the middle and around the sides of the donut? Grease, my friends. All deep fried, crispy grease. I know, I have issues...BUT YUM!!!