Apple Adventures: It’s apple time.

I wait for this day all year: Apple orchard day!

Views of Eplegaarden

The minute we leave, I can’t wait till we get to go again. I limit myself to one trip a year… we just cannot eat more than 20 lbs of apples in one season. We go to a little, local apple orchard with Norwegian roots. It’s very old fashioned but very family oriented. They have a cash register that has got to be about 100 years old!

Norwegian apple orchard experience

This is our third trip, and it’s turned into a tradition. I turn into a little kid, and Brent joins right in, and we cannot stop ourselves from running up and down the rows, seeing who can pick the biggest apple.

big guy.

Giant fortune apple

There were so many types available to pick. We go to a little orchard just a few miles away from us, and they had a great season with tons of rain and extra apples! We grabbed a 20 pound bag and got to pickin’.

We also did some snacking.

The great part about orchards is the variety you get. There are so many kinds not available in stores, and many we’ve never heard of. This time around, we chose: Golden Delicious Smoothie- an amazing, sweet and sort of tart eating apple, Regent: which was a larger, not super crunchy but still tasty choice, Red delicious redchief for baking, Jonee for baking, Empire apples which weren’t as big as we wanted since they’re so yummy, and Fortune apples, new to us this year and incredibly large.

so. many. apples.

I have so many plans for these little guys. Cakes, bars, breads: it’s going to be intense…

We also picked up some squash: spaghetti, butternut, and acorn, and cider.

squash and gourds!

To kick off what I declare as Apple Week, I made this amazing savory-sweet apple pork dish with caramelized apples and onions in a rich cider sage sauce from Good Life Eats. I don’t often cook with apples (just baking), so I was a bit nervous. Pork and apples is a classic flavor combo, and add in sage and cider I don’t know where you could go wrong.

No pics for the recipe, but note that I used boneless center cut pork chops (3), halved the amount of apples and subbed in thinly sliced onions, and didn’t use quite as much sugar and butter for the sauce. Please make this, though, you will NOT regret it.

Check back soon for an awesome apple dessert! Happy Apple Week!

yum!