Sorry that I haven't written in the last few days. I just haven't had the energy. It's been a busy few days. My parents came up to help clean the paulareds off the trees on Friday and Saturday. (Thanks guys!) I had to take Capri to the doctor on Friday for her 6 month check up and shots (yuck!) She's 16 lbs 5 oz. and 26.5 inches long. She was not a huge fan of the shots and liked to cuddle with mommy the rest of the day. Her second tooth is also on its way so she hasn't had the best weekend although she has been a good baby considering everything she's going through.

I had the Sun Prairie Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. Once again it was a success. I just love seeing all the people and helping them discover a new apple.

My dad and Jared picked all day yesterday while my mom watched the girls. I think they needed a little break for the mayhem of the apple store. They'll be there this afternoon though. Cedi will be leaving for a little bit to participate in a duck race at her Uncle Buddy's pasture. Should be fun.

Hope you are all having a good labor day weekend and hope to see you at the orchard!

Well, it's been a busy day for me. I was only at the store for a little while this afternoon. I'm trying to let my girls live a some what normal life until we get really busy for apple season. That being said, I went to the store between nap times which turned into only a few hours. I got very little done at the store, but I got quite a bit done during afternoon nap time. I was able to create some funky new earrings and a really cool, first of it's kind chunky beaded necklace. I personally think it's super cool. I'm currently in the middle of a multi-strand necklace. I hope to try to finish after I finish this post, but we'll see, it's already 10:30. Capri helped me label some of our cool new hand-dyed tableclothes, doiley's, and cloth napkins. They're super cool and will add an unique touch to someone's house.

I'm pretty sure it's going to be an almost every night occurence to make caramel apples, but we did an extra large batch tonight so we possibly will have tomorrow night off...we'll see. The girls helped us for a little while, but then I put them to bed when they had enough.

Also, keep an eye on the store in the next few weeks for some neat new planters and kitchen decoratiosn. I just made an order and hope to recieve them soon.

The girls went to a sitter today so we were able to accomplish quite a bit at the orchard. Diane got some things sorted out on the computer while I sorted for the DeForest Farmer's Market and helped customers. Then, before the sun got too strong, we took pictures of the quilts for our 'Quilt of the Week' special (which I will be posting...tomorrow sometime probably, or soon anyway) and hung the quilts in the store. The back room is starting to really come together now that the quilts are a part of it.

In the afternoon I finished sorting for my market and then I headed out. This is the first year for the market in DeForest and usually it takes awhile for them to get going. I have to say that it is already a WONDERFUL market. There were quite a few vendors and TONS of foot traffic. I really didn't even have time to walk around and check out other peoples booths...a good thing because I'm busy, a bad thing because I like to spend money. I brought some emu eggs because I didn't have a very large selection of apple varieties (only Paulared and Williams Pride) and I like to fill my table up and I wanted people to talk to me. The crowd definately found them facinating and I was able to chat with quite a few people. I didn't go through as many caramel apples as I thought I might, but now that some have tried them I'm sure they'll be back next week with there friends for more! If anyone is in the area or lives in DeForest I definately recommend checking the market out...it's from 4:30 until 7 on Tuesday nights!

Enjoy the rest of your night!

Hello All! I almost didn't get down here to write tonight...I'm exhausted (I think it's from my allergies because I actually sort of got to sleep in today...) and Capri just wanted to play and play. Finally she rubbed her eyes and I put her to bed.

It was a good weekend at the apple store. We've had many people come by excited about fresh apples. One couple stopped in who had never been at the orchard before and are now addicted to our caramel apples...doesn't take too much, just one bite. I was also able to make some more really fun flower hats and I have created some pretty neat button jewelry you'll have to make sure to check out.

Diane will have to write a little about the fun they all had with the calves this weekend. I'll only say that Jared's moving quite a bit slower than usual...

I got a bit of a break this afternoon and escaped to a baby shower for a few hours. A friend of mine is going to be having a baby boy at the beginning of October...very excited for her and her husband! They served all 'mini' food so I brought what I considered 'mini' caramel apples...they actually werent' so mini looking when they weren't next to our gi-normous regular caramel apples...oh well, I tried. Pretty sure the guests will still like them (they were going home favors so I haven't heard the verdict yet...)

Grandma and Capri ran the store while Grandpa, Pappa and Cedi picked apples. The arrangement seemed to work out pretty well. We had a partial Lapacek Family reunion this afternoon. Great Grandma and Grandpa Lapacek were there as well as one of Frank's brothers', Dave, and his wife Peggy. It's always nice when family stops by for a visit since we don't have very much time to do too much visiting ourselves during the season.

When we got home, I played around with a two person apple crisp recipe...Jared liked it...I think it still needs a little bit of work. I'll have it down sooner than later and then I'll be sure to share it with you all. I'm trying to make it so it works perfect in our baked apple dish and so that it's microwaveably simple.

Oh, I do have to give a shout out to my cousin's wife, Carrie, who just delivered a 10 lb 1 oz (WOW!) baby girl on Friday, Charlotte Marie. Both mom and baby are healthy! Congratulations Josh, Carrie and Jackson on your new addition!

That's all for tonight! Hope to see more of you in the upcoming days!

Well, I just returned home from a successful farmer's market in Sun Prairie. I sold all of my apples and about half of my caramel apples by 11:40. I could have had one more bushel with me, but that's not too bad. It was great seeing some familiar faces again. As always, I can never attend a market without forgetting something...this time it was my box of jewelry. Hopefully next week I won't forget it.

Since I finished a bit early I was able to try out some of Sassy Cow's delicious peach ice cream. I'm pretty sure they are a dairy farm located in Columbus, WI. Lots of vegetables were available as well and of course the bakery was there. My father-in-law is a huge fan of the shrimp that the seafood man brings. If you live in the area you should definitely check the market out sometime. They've really done a nice job. It's on Saturdays from 7 - 12 behind the Municipal Building (across the road from Cannery Square) if you're interested.

Well, off to the store!

Well, it was a humid day out today. I went to help out the store this morning with the girls for a little while. My allergies are in high gear and it took awhile this morning for them to calm down. Once they did, we headed on over. Frank went to the auction today...I never asked him how we did for the apples, but he came back with quite a few cantaloupe if anyone is interested. I came home and the girls took really long naps...it was amazing. I picked a few blueberries and worked on the computer.

Later we went back over to the store and loaded the van for tomorrow's market in Sun Prairie. It will be my first week there. I'm really hoping the weather is nice. I know they are predicting a bit of rain. Frank and Diane had already sorted all the apples (THANKS) so all I had to do was put together some crafty items and my box full of things to make signs and what-not.

Maybe I'll see some of you tomorrow! Have a good evening!

Well, we did it again. Jared, the girls and I made more caramel apples tonight! Yum! We're trying not to make too many ahead of time because the humidity is not good for them, but we still want to make sure we don't run out for you. The key to getting something done efficiently is to make Jared do it by himself for a half hour. By the time you come down to help he has a completely new system devised that makes the whole operation go SO much faster. I think we really have it down now. He just made a comment to me tonight that he wants his mom to make caramel apples with him one night just so she can see what a great system he has. I'm sure she will be proud as always!

Off to bed...well, maybe a little crafting first...we'll see!

So, I know this is a bit strange...I live on an apple orchard with TONS of apples and I only like a few varieties...gala, honeygold (we only have limited quantities) and now another variety...SANSA! Yeah! I now LOVE 3 out of the 37 varieties and like about 5-6 (I can also eat fireside, tolman sweet, and late season paula reds (when there nice and sweet). Unfortunately, this is the first year we've gotten any sansa's and they are TINY (which, ironically, I also love small apples) and we don't have very many. Frank and Diane picked all they have at there orchard...about 6 (I ate 3 today...plan on finishing those off tomorrow) and I had Jared check ours. He said we'll have maybe about 10 lbs total this year, but they are not ready over here yet. Basically, this is just a teaser for next year. Something for all of you sweet apple lovers to look forward to trying. But the word in the orchard is there are quite a few honeygolds' so at least there will be a few options this season.

The girls went to a sitter today and I was able to get LOTS done at the orchard. I sorted Frank's apple's for the Waunakee market...haven't heard how that went yet, put up a window screen display of some of my $4 earrings, did some work for the orchard on the computer, laminated signs, sorted more apples, and helped customers. Overall, it was a very productive day. As I was sorting some Ginger Gold's, Diane read my mind and brought down a bowl of popcorn from the house. It was delish! The perfect afternoon snack.

No word on how the caramel apples yet fared at the market, so I'm going to assume for the time being that we don't have to make more tonight...we'll see if that changes. Hope to see you all soon! I'm going to go put my girls to bed and then myself!

Yes, that's right, Jared and I just finished our very first batch of caramel apples. We made 72 with nuts and 27 without nuts. We're hoping they last through tomorrow...through Thursday would be nice, but I'm guessing we'll be making more tomorrow night.

I worked at the store this morning with Frank, Diane, Cedi and Capri. While Capri was napping Cedi helped me make some 5 lb bags of red potatoes. She did really good until she decided it might taste as good as an apple...turns out it's "ucky" when it's not cooked! The store is really starting to come together. It's pretty exciting. I made some really cute infant hats with flowers sewn on them that I just put in the store. Tomorrow we should really be able to make some progress since the girls are going to a babysitter for the day.

Frank will be heading down to Waunakee for the farmer's market tomorrow night. It's been decided that I will take DeForest on Tuesday and Sun Prairie on Saturdays. Frank likes the Waunakee market so he was fine with taking a day of them. He's quite the talker so feel free to stop by and say 'hi' if you're at the market tomorrow.

Had a few people asking about cider. Well, there's none yet. We're thinking probably the week after Labor Day...maybe that weekend. The key to a good batch of cider is to have as much of a variety of apples as possible. You get a really good flavor when you combine all the unique taste's together. It takes us a little while into the season to get enough of a variety to make cider worth selling. We'll definately keep you posted about when some will be available.

I'm going to head to bed! Take care and see y'all soon!

Hi again! I know, I know, this is my third posting for the day. But, the girls are asleep, I have the energy, and that may not be true tomorrow. So, we're going to try a new feature for apple season on this blog. Some of you may know, from visiting the store that my mother-in-law also make quilts. My mother-in-law typically makes the larger, extremely beautiful quilts and I typically make the smaller (baby size) brightly, colored funky quilts. We're going to write about a "Quilt of the Week" each week and feature one of the quilts we have created. Many of the quilts we will feature were machine quilted by Barb Raisbeck, Diane's sister. She has a huge long arm machine and does an amazing job quilting. To see more of her work visit her website at www.quiltsbybarb.com. The first quilt I chose to feature this week is the sunrise quilt. To learn more just continue to read!

The Story of the Sunrise Quilt

My husband and I recently built a house. My job was to pick out all the colors of the walls, which isn’t that easy to do when you have no flooring, no woodwork, and no furniture. Having none of these things does make the actual job of painting easier. When the painting was done, I realized I hadn’t painted anything orange, my husband’s favorite color. So, I decided that the master bathroom would be decorated with orange and pink. The bathroom has a bright orange shower curtain, orange towels, with accents of bright pink. It’s quite fun. Well, I needed a pink and orange curtain to match everything else and, as I’m sure you can imagine, it’s not that easy to buy a pink and orange curtain. My solution to the problem was that I would piece one together like a quilt. I found a piece of hand-dyed cotton fabric that my mother-in-law dyed that was perfect and mixed it with some of my commercial cotton fabrics. When I had the curtain to the size I wanted, I realized that it was way too beautiful to hang over a window that people would rarely see. And that’s when I decided I would have to think of a new solution for the bathroom curtain and the “Sunrise” Quilt was made.
Size: 47” x 35”

My aunt-in-law, Barb Raisbeck, did the machine quilting of a dragonfly pattern with her long-arm machine.

To see images of this beautiful quilt please click on the following link:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10566871


Machine Pieced by Kim Lapacek,
www.kimscraftyapple.etsy.com
Poynette, Wisconsin
Machine Quilted by Barb Raisbeck
www.quiltsbybarb.com
2006

Hi All! Just talked to Diane and the food pantry stopped by today to pick some apples up. Turns out that they are short on food there at this time. If you have any food you'd like to donate either drop it off at the pantry or at our apple store. We'll make sure to give it to them the next time they come for apples! Thanks!

Hello everyone! Well, I spent a bit of time today working at the apple store. Diane took the girls to Subway and I was able to get a few things done. We're still working on getting the store a bit more organized and still coming up with more ideas for the season. The hand-dyes are up and organized...for now anyway. We have quite the selection and we may find it a bit challenging to find space for the hoodies we just dyed...I'm sure we'll manage though. Cedi and Grandma picked some green peppers and cabbages (is that the proper plural or is it just cabbage...hmmm). Frank was up at the produce auction and brought home some glads and some yummy red pototoes. The glads won't be there long so make sure to stop by and pick some of the beautiful flowers up.

Cedi started to get a bit cranky around 2 so we headed home for naps. I actually have them both asleep and it's been almost an hour and a half...yes, I know I am amazing :). So, I have been doing some research on "green" cleaning since I seem to be allergic to standard cleaning supplies (I know it sounds like just an excuse, but I swear it's true). I started to clean my windows with a vinegar/water/dishsoap solution to get the waxy coat left over from Windex. The next time I clean them all I should need is a bottle of vinegar and a rag. I'll keep you posted on whether or not this works or if I find any more neat "green" cleaning tips out.

Hello Everyone! Well, Diane and I decided that we needed to spend one more day before apple season dying clothes. We did a TON of hoodies, a couple dresses, and some fun children's clothes today. It was SUPER fun as always. I love dying because I don't think about things too much and tend to get the most amazing results. It will take a few days for the wash out before we see exactly what we got but I'm sure they will be neat...if not, we can always dye them again!

I also was able to set up my jewelry/craft section a little more this morning. Things are really starting to come together.

Can't wait to see you all soon!

Well, yesterday we found out that our little deer incident last weekend resulted in our van being considered Totalled. Which means we have about a week to find a new one so we can manage apple season. Oh well, I guess we'll start looking.



I have about 180 names typed in thus far in the new gmail mailing list...only one page to go! Next week I'm going to be working on last minute printing, spreadsheets, etc. before we open for apple season. It's getting close.



I hope everyone has a nice day and weekend! Enjoy this beautiful weather we're having!

Well, I'm having a blast typing our email list into our gmail account...really it's super fun, I love to type (Yes, I'm a dork). Hopefully I'll have everything re-listed in the next few days and we'll be sending out some fun emails. Just let us know if you want to be added to the list! Thanks

Planting an apple seed from a particular apple will not produce a tree of that same variety. The seed is a cross of the tree the fruit was grown on and the variety that was the cross pollinator.

Hello Everyone! Kim again.

My mother-in-law is working feverishly to try to figure out our email mailing list problem so please bear with us a little longer. Below is an email she sent out earlier today...please let us know if you didn't get it and should have...

It seems I have become a victim of my own success. Several of you have reported to me that you're not receiving our updates. After some investigation, I've learned that these updates are consindered SPAM by some of your email servers and anti-spam software. I believe that is because so many of you have signed up for this list. Every time I send an update, it goes out to quite a large number of email addresses.
So, I'm looking for a way to be sure all of you get the info you signed up for. I'm breaking the list down into smaller sections for this email only so that it will, hopefully, get through to everyone. PLEASE enter Lapacek'sOrchard into your contacts list and add lapacek@merr.com anddlapacek@gmail.com and lapaceksorchard@gmail.com as email addresses. 3 email addresses????? Yes, 3 email addresses. lapacek@merr.com is the original one I have always used. It's dial-up and I'm working towards getting everything off it so I can go to DSL. The other two are used by Kim and I and either of us might need to communicate with you.
If our address is in your contacts list, we should be recognized as friends and no longer considered spammers. And I can put each email out only once to the entire list. I'll send a regular update in a few days, so be sure to watch for it and let me know if you don't see anything by Saturday. Then I'll need to go back to the drawing board........

Thanks for your help,
Diane

Hello All! I keep telling Diane that we go on these trips just so I have more to right on this blog. This past weekend Jared's cousin Katrina got married in Prairie Du Chen (spelling?), WI, so Frank, Diane and Karma took one van, Jared, the girls and I took another. The wedding was beautiful...a bit warm, but beautiful. Frank and Diane had a hotel room for the night, Jared, the girls and I had decided we would just drive home since sleeping in a hotel room with small children is never really the most fun thing, and Karma was up in the air about what she would do. Well, after a fun night of dancing (Cedi was ADORABLE) we finally decided to hit the road around 8 and Karma came with us. We decided we would see how quick HWY 60 was were off. About 45 minutes along, a deer ran in front of the van and we hit it head on. Everyone was fine...the girls slept right through it, the van was not. We lost all of our radiator fluid at least...it was dark and difficult to tell. Luckily, Karma was a AAA member and we knew who to call. Unfortunately, there was absolutely NO cell service anywhere. No one was stopping to help either. So, we turned the heat on high, and slowly moved ahead. We stopped again a little way up where we had thought we'd found some service, but no luck. A young gentleman did stop this time and tried to help but his cell didn't work either. He did inform us that there was a gas station just up the way about 3 miles.

We decided to go for it and we made it there just before it closed. I called the county sheriff's to report the incident and they sent a deputy out. Again, we had NO cell service, the gas station had closed and the pay phone was out of order. I wandered around the gas station parking lot for the next hour trying to get some service. I was attacked by a giant moth (don't worry, I was okay) and saw a cute stray cat during the process. Finally the trouper offered to take me in his squad car up to some higher ground. A few minutes away we found service and I tried AAA. I got through. Then they put me on hold and of course I lost the service. We drove around some more until I finally got some service just down the road from the gas station. It turns out AAA would only cover 5 miles of towing and we had no way to go anywhere since there were no hotels around, no cabs, and we had two small children who have to ride in car seats. I called Jared's uncle Dave and he said he would come to get us and we would deal with the van the next day.

When I got back to the car to report the news to the fellow car mates, we decided it would be best just to sleep in the van until Frank and Diane were well enough to pick us up. Jared ran around and finally found reception while standing on the roof of the BP and canceled our ride with Dave (thanks anyway Dave...we appreciate what you would have done for us!). We had no blankets in the van except for a baby quilt and some receiving blankets. Jared and I were still all dressed up from the wedding. We created some makeshift sleeping arrangements and settled in for the night. When we finally got Capri settled Cedi woke up. She wandered around the van playing with random buttons until Karma finally got her to sleep by reading her the book 'Horns to Toes' at 2am. If we thought sleeping in a hotel would them was going to be tough...it was nothing compared to all of us sleeping in a minivan! We fitfully slept for a few hours until we decided it would be okay to call Frank and Diane at 4:40 in the morning. They came right away and we are all safely home.

As always, we had to have some excitement on our little trip.

Can't wait to see you all in a few weeks for apple season!

Take care!