Apples

Despite the abundance of apple trees in Boulder, there is only one you-pick apple orchard this side of Grand Junction , and you have to make reservations to pick at that orchard.  For the past two years, we have been picking apples from some half wild trees along the bike path near our house.  They're small apples, and many have rotten cores, but if you slicer peeler corer them, there really aren't that many bad spots left to cut out.  They are a wonderful variety, something similar to my favorite Empire Apple: sour and crunchy. With no other options, we decided to return to our bike path you-pick trees.  

Pickles got to come this time, but I'm not sure if he'll get invited back next time.  First we have to jump over the creek and then climb up a 3ft vertical rock wall to get to a little ledge between fence and creek that has the trees on it.  It took an acrobatic hand-off to get Pickles up onto the ledge without either of us falling into the creek.  Once there we tied him up and climbed the tree to pick.  Apparently, he never learned that it's okay for people to climb trees because he started his pitiful don't abandon me crying.  Something like when he was 2 months old and left alone in his crate.  We were only 10ft away from him and usually he is fine being tied up if we are within sight.  Maybe he was just looking out for our well-being afraid one of us would fall out of the tree.

Despite his less than perfect behavior, we picked a ton of apples in less than 20 minutes and took them home to process.  We ended up with about 9 pints of apple pie filling, 3 quarts of apple sauce, and 3 quarts of sliced apples.  All free.

Mark is peeling and coring the apples while Pickles hides under the table tasting the peels.