ian apple picking

Our apple trees did rather poorly this year.  While last year we were amazed by the remarkable quantity of apples the old, long-untended trees on our new property produced, we were equally amazed by the fact that we got pretty much nothing this year. We did have a brief bit of unusually warm weather last March, followed by a return to more seasonal (ie cold and wet) weather, which perhaps tempted the apple blossoms to come out a bit to early, only to freeze shortly thereafter.  Or at least this is what I’ve heard from a couple of small commercial orchards that had similar trouble. Whatever the reason, I can’t imagine autumn without fresh-picked apples, so we headed out to a nearby orchard new to us–Rocky Ridge Orchard in Bowdoin–for a lovely day of   picking……and of course, the requisite hot, fresh, cider doughnuts–delish!

apple picking 2012

apple picking 2012

eating donuts

donut