Lyman Orchards: We Pick Apples
Oct. 24th, 2011 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furtechIt is already Saturday and I have yet to register for the convention. We arrived late on Thursday and on Friday first-thing I dashed off to visit NFT (more on that later).
Complete, annotated Flickr set here
Sales has been so-so for Tracy in the dealer's room on Friday, so she was up with the idea of our "annual" apple picking trek on Saturday (before the dealer's room opened but we might be late returning).
Last year Tracy's research into pick-your-own places local to the convention turned up Lyman Orchards. I'm not sure how they rate against other places, but they have a huge set of orchards and many varieties of apple. They also have a store that is well worth a visit. We returned to them this year, this time to actually pick apples instead of buying them in the store.
The apple-picking was wonderful! Sneaking over early Saturday (to get back before the dealers room opened) resulted in us beating the weekend crowds (which we had forgotten about). After several days of rain, the weather on Saturday dawned clear and crisp-- much more like one expects of CT in the fall. Later this would mean that hoards of families would converge on the area. For the most part we had the place to ourselves.
Apple Picking Tip: walk WAaaaayyy down the row of trees before you start to pick. Near the road, the trees were all but denuded of low-hanging fruit. There were ripe, red apples-- but far too high for the average person to pick. The deeper you got into the row, the lower the available ripe fruit got. The branches were so covered with apples that they seemed unreal: I'm amazed that the branches don't bend or break from the weight.
I renewed my love for Washington Red Delicious apples: it has been decades since I've gotten a good one in a store and I had hoped to realize my theory that Washington Delicious apples picked off a tree were still pure and good. Success! They were every bit as crunchy and tart-sweet as I'd remembered. Since these were the first row of apples we found, I was soon dragging about six pounds of the things through the rest of the orchard.
Tracy was looking for a specific type of apple: the Red Macoun. Apparently this variety requires very cold winters in order to fruit. I tasted one: amazing. New favorite apple: this fruit has a startlingly white flesh (like, almost unnaturally bright white) with a red blush in the flesh near the stem and flower of the fruit. The flavor is deep and has that perfect blend of tart and sweet that I associate with apples. The texture was even more crisp than the Red Delicious-- almost brittle. Man-- great apple!
One thing that intrigued me was the amount of windfall fruit. Piles and piles. I kept wondering if there wasn't -something- that could be done with them, but neither of us could think of anything practical. Possibly fuel...but you'd need to be pretty desperate. Seems like such waste. One thing Tracy realized early: it was dangerous to pick up windfalls: there was a lot of poison ivy growing under some of the trees.
There were also fields of raspberries and pumpkins. I like pumpkins: they bring back very happy memories and seeing them (especially growing in a field) always brings a big smile to my face.
We stopped at the Lyman Orchards store on the way back to the con and got lunch to go. The store is well-worth visiting: they have a nice deli that makes good sandwiches and soups; their bakery is evil-- filled with fantastic baked goods and fresh donuts; there is all manner of apple ciders, pies and apple and fruit related food. And candy. Lots of temptation. I exerted iron-will, reigned in my carb-demon, and managed to walk out with just soup and a sandwich. And I would spend the rest of the con happily munching great apples.
Complete, annotated Flickr set here
Sales has been so-so for Tracy in the dealer's room on Friday, so she was up with the idea of our "annual" apple picking trek on Saturday (before the dealer's room opened but we might be late returning).
Last year Tracy's research into pick-your-own places local to the convention turned up Lyman Orchards. I'm not sure how they rate against other places, but they have a huge set of orchards and many varieties of apple. They also have a store that is well worth a visit. We returned to them this year, this time to actually pick apples instead of buying them in the store.
The apple-picking was wonderful! Sneaking over early Saturday (to get back before the dealers room opened) resulted in us beating the weekend crowds (which we had forgotten about). After several days of rain, the weather on Saturday dawned clear and crisp-- much more like one expects of CT in the fall. Later this would mean that hoards of families would converge on the area. For the most part we had the place to ourselves.
Apple Picking Tip: walk WAaaaayyy down the row of trees before you start to pick. Near the road, the trees were all but denuded of low-hanging fruit. There were ripe, red apples-- but far too high for the average person to pick. The deeper you got into the row, the lower the available ripe fruit got. The branches were so covered with apples that they seemed unreal: I'm amazed that the branches don't bend or break from the weight.
I renewed my love for Washington Red Delicious apples: it has been decades since I've gotten a good one in a store and I had hoped to realize my theory that Washington Delicious apples picked off a tree were still pure and good. Success! They were every bit as crunchy and tart-sweet as I'd remembered. Since these were the first row of apples we found, I was soon dragging about six pounds of the things through the rest of the orchard.
Tracy was looking for a specific type of apple: the Red Macoun. Apparently this variety requires very cold winters in order to fruit. I tasted one: amazing. New favorite apple: this fruit has a startlingly white flesh (like, almost unnaturally bright white) with a red blush in the flesh near the stem and flower of the fruit. The flavor is deep and has that perfect blend of tart and sweet that I associate with apples. The texture was even more crisp than the Red Delicious-- almost brittle. Man-- great apple!
One thing that intrigued me was the amount of windfall fruit. Piles and piles. I kept wondering if there wasn't -something- that could be done with them, but neither of us could think of anything practical. Possibly fuel...but you'd need to be pretty desperate. Seems like such waste. One thing Tracy realized early: it was dangerous to pick up windfalls: there was a lot of poison ivy growing under some of the trees.
There were also fields of raspberries and pumpkins. I like pumpkins: they bring back very happy memories and seeing them (especially growing in a field) always brings a big smile to my face.
We stopped at the Lyman Orchards store on the way back to the con and got lunch to go. The store is well-worth visiting: they have a nice deli that makes good sandwiches and soups; their bakery is evil-- filled with fantastic baked goods and fresh donuts; there is all manner of apple ciders, pies and apple and fruit related food. And candy. Lots of temptation. I exerted iron-will, reigned in my carb-demon, and managed to walk out with just soup and a sandwich. And I would spend the rest of the con happily munching great apples.
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-24 05:43 pm (UTC)Lately I've been really like Honey Crisp apples. I'm not sure why!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-26 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-24 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-26 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-24 07:08 pm (UTC)I went out to the local orchard here yesterday since the grocery carries SOME of their apples but not all of them. so I was in search of Jonagolds which are cross between Golden delicious and Jonathans. (score!)
I think every child under 8 years old in a twenty mile radius was there. I'd say there were about three times as many cars there then at the grocery store. I also managed to snag a jar of sweet potato butter. it was amidst the pile of apple butter, but the sweet potato drew me in. Need to get some english muffins to put it on.
headed back home with my apples, which are a GIGANTIC cultivar, they're softball sized or larger! and got a wheel of brie at the grocery store. Fresh apples with slice of brie on top, oh yeah!
As to Lyman orchards itself, I actually had one of the Lymans as an instructor in the vocational agricultural high school I went to. Picture the character from home improvement. Now instead of home improvement, its agriculture. I nearly saw him beheaded... twice. He was the living example of "do as I say, not as I do".
no subject
Date: 2011-10-26 04:32 pm (UTC)Cider and windfalls: what do they do about the bugs and poison ivy?!? Also, the apples in the pile raged from fresh-falls to pure vinegar. I'm thinking they may use these for animal feed instead. But I have no experience on this.
Neat on the local orchard! The sweet potato butter sounds *evil*.
Lymans: that is so cool! I really love their operation. Nicely walks the line between pure farm and commercially viable business.