School has started and the first hint of fall is in the air. (Along with all things pumpkin!) This can only mean it’s time for Becker family apple picking. Now, like all moms I dream of some bucolic scene where we’re virtually skipping down rows of organic apple trees laden with heavy, delicious fruit. The reality looks more like equal parts logistical juggling and embarrassed drill sergeant. See proof below that even photographer moms don’t always get the perfect image. When they’re all picking noses and making faces sometimes I just roll with it and save them for blackmail later.
Our favorite spot is a no-frills and equally no-crowds orchard in Libertyville. Heinz Orchards is a low spray orchard, which makes my hippy mom heart happy, and is a simple operation. You give them cash and they give you a bag and send you into a giant field of beautiful trees. The kids run and play and not-so-slowly fill up their bags. After we get home I get to play domestic diva and turn them into pies, crumbles and rustic tartes. Wish I had a picture of that, but it was gone in less than an hour!
