The day we went apple picking...

..we found lots of big juicy apples.

To make a long story short... Mom has been watching this orchard that is very near to us and noticed that nobody was picking the apples. Mom was going to buy apples for sauce but decided to wait to see what would take place here first. So Dad and Mom set out one day to find the manager and found a friend along the road who knew all about it and by evening time we had picked more than 20 bushel of apples. And we have been back since and picked more!

There was such a bumper crop of apples in the valley that they were not able to sell these. Tons of apples were going to waste. There was a lot on the ground, but the trees were still loaded with the sweetest apples. We told our friends about it and they all picked a lot too.

They had Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Yellow Delicious.

I think we might of eaten a half a bushel while we were picking. :) They were so good!

This little girl was a big sticky mess from head to toe.

\

We picked apples until darkness creeped in on us and we had to call it an evening.

The apple crew.. minus Micah, Jenny and the boys.

Don't think it ends there. That was just the beginning!

We started washing, cutting, cooking and straining them into applesauce early in the morning and didn't finish till 3:30 that same day.

We did most the work outside to keep the mess out of the kitchen.

Joshua made a fire and got a majority of the apples cooked for us.

We took turns running the cooked apples through the strainer...

..while the little guys just sat around and watched. :)

We also took turns filling the jars with applesauce.

Micah and Dad got home from work early and helped us.

We made apple butter too! :)

In all we made 90 quart of applesauce and 20 quart of apple butter. 

I am home for part of the day at least, so hope you all enjoyed the post and I am going to go change out the laundry!

Have a great weekend!