If you're ever looking for something to do in Arkansas, then I have a suggestion. Apple picking! Sunday afternoon became an adventure road trip. A week ago at work, Falguni (my frand & co-worker) was talking to another co-worker where they were discussing apple orchards in Arkansas. She had never been to an apple orchard (I don't think) and hadn't been to one in Arkansas (or anywhere else that I can remember). She came up with the idea to take an afternoon road trip to Guy, Arkansas, to pick some apples! She also enjoys photography so we decided to load up the cameras (I still need practice) and get to apple pickin'!
Now these are all pictures that I took - I'm still learning how to use this new camera and new lens.
Forgive the mistakes you see, for I'm still learning.
We had no idea what it was going to be like to pick apples in Arkansas.
But it's just like picking anything else in a garden. But the garden is full of trees.
This is the first row of Arkansas Black.
It's the easiest apple to pick from the others. Why? Because it's red.
All the other apples are green.
Here's a brief description about the Arkansas Black apple:
The skin of the Black Arkansas apple is waxy and vivid red to dark purple in color. Its flesh is golden hued and juicy with a fine-grained and crisp texture. Its highly aromatic and sweet-tart flavor mellows and becomes more palatable with storage. The flesh as well will soften with storage, when first harvested the Black Arkansas apple is extremely hard, almost to the point that many would find it difficult to eat out of hand.
Being hard to eat out of your hand is very correct.
This apple had already been taken by the slug.
Couldn't blame him, it's a good apple.
When they aren't selling apples in the fall, the orchard also sells peaches, strawberries and grapes when they're in season.
Falguni made a friend while we were doing some apple pickin'.
I'm not sure what this dogs name is, but I named her Rusty.
A tree full of honey crisp apples
The best part about picking these apples? She let us try one to see how good they were. Which is smart - because that just made me buy more apples.
We even found a small patch of leftover raspberries.
And some grapes! These were delicious.
When we were leaving there was a field full of cattle just looking at us.
Wonder if they wanted an apple?
A little photoshop fun!
Thanks cow! We will be back in the spring to pick some peaches.
Stay tuned - guess what the recipe this week will be based on?
I'll go ahead and tell you. Apples!
