Day 2.273: Mind the apples and p...

For the second part of our outing today, we went to the orchards of a nearby pick-your-own farm to pick apples. Apples are big business in New York and are also a big part of traditional Fall festivities - apple picking, cider and doughnuts. The last two I have discussed and sampled before, but unlike the rest of the family, this was my first apple-picking trip. The trees were extremely laden and we got a very good crop. There were masses of windfalls, probably the result of some very windy weather we've had this week. One even fell on Exile #4's head while we were there. We ran into some friends we haven't seen in a while which made the visit even better.

After apple-picking we followed the sign to pick-your-own pumpkins. This experience was as surreal as the apple-picking was traditional. The pumpkin patch looked like this:

And this:

At a first glance it looked like these huge orange balls had been scattered here as some kind of a treasure-hunt amidst the wispy weeds, but although some were disconnected, closer inspection revealed the pumpkin plants and a few late, plucky-but-doomed flowers still hoping to have their moment.

By the time we had selected four pumpkins and paid our ten dollars to the nice man at the register, it was getting late in the day and we walked back to the car in the late afternoon sun feeling pretty good about life.

Sorry if anyone came here hoping for a cockney warning about holding the hand-rail on the staircase.