Apple Donuts

Since it's Fall, and we live in the Midwest, we went apple picking. In my alternate dream universe, apple picking is when you go to the orchard and in exchange for your labor, you get to pick loads of delicious cheap apples for making apple sauce, apple butter, pies, crisps, and so on. In the reality, apply picking is when you pay someone an exorbitant amount of money to do all the work of picking apples. Thus, we go for the novelty and the donuts and do very little actual apple picking. Honestly, if the kids were older and better at picking I would (and will) find a legitimate pick-your-own place and coerce everyone into picking loads apples. Right now they are not exactly discerning when it comes to which fruit they choose, so it is much safer to have small amounts of guided picking supplemented with tractor rides around the orchard and viewing farm animals.

A friend from church recommended we try a Honey Hill Farm in Waterman which is about an hour away from us. It had the right ratio of apple picking to extra activities (I'm not into going to "orchards" that are actually carnivals), and admittance to the orchard and all the activities were free. While the bells and whistles were few, the kids were very happy with what they had, and we had a lovely afternoon together enjoying the sunshine, and, of course, eating apple cider donuts (as far as I can tell, the donuts are the real reason everyone is so enthusiastic about apple picking).