Apple Picking and Pumpkin Donuts, YUM!

Grace didn't have school today so we set off to Beilke Family Farm to pick some apples. It is a great place to get yummy apples. We had lots of fun being silly, picking (and eating!) the apples.





(photographer: Jilian)












After loading our apples in the car we went straight to EZ Orchards Farm Market for some fresh made pumpkin donuts. DELICIOUS! We bought a dozen and they are already gone! :-)


















Now my plans for all those apples...apple butter, applesauce, apple pie, apple crisp and I really need to find a pumpkin donut recipe! ;-)

Apple Pie Kit

A friend of ours gave us some apples, a big bag of tart green apples, perfect for apple pie. I used some in baked oatmeal but there were too many to eat all at once. I decided to try out a trick another friend told me about, apple pie kits to go in the freezer. I prepared the apples as I normally would for an apple pie but instead of baking them right away I put the pie filling into freezer bags. I now have two apple pie kits in my freezer, ready to go. I just have to thaw, put into a crust and bake.


I'm lazy and don't peel my apples when I bake a pie! I slice and core them. This time I decided to chop the apples into smaller pieces.


I don't use a recipe when making pies, I just do everything to taste. In this case add enough sugar and cinnamon to sweeten the apples and a little flour to thicken the juices.


Place each bowl full (about 2.5 to 3.5 apples) into a freezer bag until you are ready to use. Thaw, place in pie crust and bake.

Apple Picking

Grace has been talking about going apple picking so when she didn't have school last Friday, I found an apple orchard and we went a-picking! It was A LOT of fun! It was great to be outside, enjoy the Fall smells and colors and play with my girls. The best part of it was we were the only ones in the whole orchard (other than the sweet farmer that would check on us from time to time, he even took Grace for a ride on his 4-wheeler and let her cut a pumpkin from the vine). I highly recommend you visit Beilke Family Farm, it is only $8 for a 5 gallon bucket of apples.













After apple picking we drove around a little (we were in a part of Oregon we had never seen) and came across a cute country store stocked with lots of vegetables AND freshly made DONUTS. We skipped the vegetables and took home a bag of fresh pumpkin donuts, YUM!