We offer a wide variety of baking mixes to simplify baking for you. We tested these all ourselves and then put them together to share them with you!

Apple Crisp

Apple Crumb Cake

Apple Spice Bread

Apple Streusel Muffins

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

Taffy Apple Cake - Kim's personal favorite ecspecially when made with McIntosh

Caramel Apple Kits

Mulling Spices

We also were quite busy this winter canning apple related goods...here's what we have at the store:

Apple Butter

Apple Jalapeno Preserves

Apple Pie in a Jar

Applesauce - chunky and smooth -no sugar added...only ingredient APPLES

Caramel Apple Jam

Hot Pepper Mustard

Spiced Cider Jelly

Sweet Apple Pickles

Lots of bad weather went through Wisconsin yesterday.  Luckily, we did not get any of it.  I think it split right around us.  I did get some gorgeous pictures of the sky though…these were taken around 8:30.  I walked outside and everything was just glowing this eerie yellow…so weird.   Picture from my front deck looking west.      Picture from my front deck looking UP!

Picture from my back deck looking west. 

Another great recipe from the Wisconsin Apple Grower's Cookbook:

Crispy Festive Apple Salad
Shirley Johnson Warrens
2000 Finalist

3 red Wisconsin apples, diced (unpeeled)
1 banana, sliced
1 cup chopped celery
12 grapes (red or green or both) cut in half
4 dates, chopped
12 ounces fat free pineapple or tropical yogurt

Mix all ingredients together. Store in refrigerator until serving time. Garnish with mint leaves if desired.

Yield: 8 servings, 95 calories

We acquired two chicken coops last year (I believe) and they were ratty and old looking on the outside (the insides are very, very nice).  So I decided that I would paint them.  I have a rather large collection of ‘oops’ paint that I have collected over the years and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to use them.  We also figured…why not let the girls help?The ‘before’ picture… boring coop, clean girls…I started out by poring each girl a paint color in their own container.  Cedi of course got pink and Capri was given a light blue.  

 It didn’t take me too long to realize I might as well just open a bunch of different colors and let them go at it…   Capri soon realized it was fun to paint herself and mommy…   I had a fun time painting with my girls…I hope this is signs of many more fun ‘crafty’ times ahead.  Cedi actually did a really good job.  She would paint a strip…rotating colors every 2-3 inches and then mama would go and ‘blend the drips’.  I do have to say Capri was probably a little young for the project but towards the end she was very content just putting paint from one can to the other…as you can see from the pictures of the coop…it didn’t really matter to me either. 

An after picture…we just sort of put all the colors on and blended as we went :)  Now, we just have to get Grandpa to find us some chickens! 

I thought this recipe sounded good for the middle of July. Great to enjoy with friends at a cookout.

This recipe come from the Wisconsin Apple Grower's Association Cookbook.

Apple Toss
Mary Jean Hlavac, McFarland
2001 Finalist

5 cups assorted melon balls (watermelon, cantaloupe, etc.)
1-8 ounce lemon yogurt
2 T. orange juice
1/2 of a 4-ounce container frozen light whipped topping thawed
3 medium apples, cored and chopped, coarsely
A sprinkle of broken pecans - optional

Store the melon balls in a covered container. Chill till serving time. In a 1-1/2 quart covered container stir together yogurt and juices, fold in thawed topping. Stir in chopped apples. Cover and chill up to 4 hours. Optional - sprinkle with pecan pieces before serving.

Yield: 6-8 servings. 92 calories.

Frank, Diane and I attended an orchard field day at Cain’s Orchard yesterday. We learned a few interesting things that we will be implementing at our orchard either this year or next. One thing that was fabulous was Diane Cain’s flowers…just amazing. The rest of this blog is pretty much just going to be a picture show. I don’t know the name’s of the flowers…maybe Diane will come in and add that info?… but they sure are beautiful! A

BC D E F G H IJ K L M N OP Q R S T U V W X YZ AA

BB

Do you have a favorite picture?

As I've mentioned before, we are in the process of transitioning our store operation from the Bohling Road Orchard Location to the Kroncke Road Location...to be completed and ready for the 2010 apple season.

We put on a minor addition to our shed (another 40' x 60' section) and the grading just wasn't working to my husbands' preference. He decided to put up a small retaining wall and asked me what I thought would work.

Not too long ago we were at a friends house that has an old tire retaining wall. I thought it was neat looking the very first time I saw it and what a great way to use old, unusable tires! So, that's what I suggested...an old tire wall. For some reason, Frank's Uncle Buddy had lots and lots of tires stored in his shed...not sure why but we were able to reuse them all!

And here are the ANSWERS! This is what's growing at the orchard!

(A) Pears (B)Blueberries

(C) Apple (D) Raspberry (E) Peach (F) Plum

Thanks to everyone who guessed! I'll probably do one more round...it should get easier as we go :)