Apple picking

Because we missed blackberry picking season, I asked my dad whether we could go apple picking in a secret location that I can't mention in my blog because other people will go there and pick the apples before us. Anyway, we all went, taking a broom and some of those plastic bags that it's really un-cool to walk around with.

It didn't look very apple-ish at first. There were a few on the ground, rotting and worm-eaten, and we didn't really feel like eating those, so we carried on walking. We saw some trees that still had apples on them, but they were diseased, and we didn't really feel like eating those either. So we walked on.

Green apple trees are not too hard to find, which I guess, is why we found one at the "Secret location". It had lots of juicy-looking fruit on it, but we couldn't reach the high-up ones, and neither could our broom, so one of the people with us decided to throw some rotten apples up into the tree, and they knocked down some good apples, which weren't so good by the time they hit the ground, but were still better than the rest.

Later on my mother spotted another tree, but it had red apples on it, and they looked quite tasty. I climbed the tree and used the broom to knock down some of the apples, but I had to be careful not to let them hit my mother and sister on the head, while they were picking up the ones I'd already knocked down. Dad said not to worry about hitting them on the head, though, not because my sister was being irritating, but because one  falling apple isn't really enough to knock someone out and injure them for the rest of their lives.

Afterwards, we hid the bags of apples and the broom, and went for a walk round the secret orchard. on our way, this golden retriever that walked like a show pony, and was really friendly came up to us and we stroked it. Soft, fluffy dogs aren't extremely uncommon, but this one was especially nice and furry. A lady appeared a few seconds later. She smiled and we exchanged helloes with her. She said the not usual things dog owners say about their dogs. At first, the lady just sounded normal, but suddenly, she sounded dutch, and said "Golden retrievers are very friendly, that is why so many young families have one". It was really funny when she said that because she pronounced all her 'R's as "GH"s.

Okay, back to apples! We made apple crumble, apple juice, hot apple juice with ginger, and apple chutney with the fruit we picked. Yummy!