My wife Nancy, our son Tim and his girlfriend Melissa went apple picking yesterday, on a very pretty Fall day. Clear skies, sixty-five degrees . . . perfect! The orchard, called Royal Oak Farm, is a Christian business: "our purpose and goal is to Glorify God by being faithful stewards of all He has given us." With 10,000 apple trees and 600 peach trees on 160 beautifully maintained acres, I think they've done their job. (Here's a link to their web site.)
The picture above shows what we picked - a half-bushel of Jonathon's and Gala's. I also sampled an Empire - I'd never had one before - and found it delicious! (I actually ate two Empires while we picked. I talked to another guy who said he'd had six! I wonder how many apples are eaten during the process of picking? No doubt this is factored into the price.)
It's amazing how many varieties of apples there are; Royal Oak grows about two dozen. I read somewhere that there are over 8,000 varieties of apples, world-wide. I guess I'm not surprised, given how things spread across the globe the way they do.
Apart from enjoying the beautiful weather and the drive to and from the orchard through what is rural McHenry county, I have to comment on how amazingly good really fresh food tastes, compared to store-bought. I have to agree with all those who say we should "buy local, eat local" - there really is a difference! But we should be good for quite a few days, now, and I'm looking forward to the apple at both morning and afternoon break time.
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