Apple Picking--Twin Hill Farms

We kicked off the fall season by going apple picking in Petaluma.  We got a little late start (our Saturdays have become very lazy these days) so we drove straight up for lunch first.  We found a great little Italian place in the downtown area that was so yummy!  And the $5 glass of wine didn't hurt either...

The kids LOVE doing "CHEERS" after we say the blessing...not sure where that little tradition started but I think it's here to stay.

We got to the farm in the afternoon and it was easily 95 degrees outside.  So hot.  But once we got picking we barely noticed the heat.  The apples were so yummy and so many varities!  The best part was picking them right off the tree and crunching into the juiciness.

Timo got distracted foraging through the chestnuts.  He collected quite a few for us to eat when we got home.  It's pretty impressive considering the chestnuts are hidden inside these very prickly outer shell. Looking at all the worms inside the apples was a special treat too!

We had one hiccup...Timo was reaching high to pick the biggest apple he had ever seen.  He pulled so hard that when it popped off the limb Timo lost his grip and the apple hit him right in the eye!  Poor fella...it looked like it hurt so bad.

He searched all over the ground for his apple that fell to make sure he got it and took it home.  It's hard to see in this picture but the apple was huge!

We could have easily picked way more but stopped at 25 pounds.  We ended up making apple sauce, apple pie, stewed apples and eating apple slices everyday for the next two weeks....25lbs is a LOT of apples

We were so hot once we finished,it only seemed logical to get some ice cream!  Timo loves how his tongue turns green from the lime sorbet...such a boy!

Pretty good sign that we had a great day apple picking!

A sampling of our apple treats...stewed apples the southern way and apple blackberry pie!  We still have a few small ones left that I think we're gonna make caramel apples this weekend.  Might need to go back and pick 25lb more....mmmmm