I have to admit that we don’t get to do too many ‘special’ things with our girls during the fall.  They help us with our work and we see them for meals and things but we don’t get out much, watch movies or even snuggle all that much during these three months.  Luckily they have amazing grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and baby sitters that help make the fall special for them at times too.

When Capri came home from school a few weeks ago so excited about the ‘green lemonade’ that she made in school I knew that somehow we’d have to have a lemonade stand for her.  I emailed her scheduled sitter for Saturday morning to see if she would be okay running the stand with them.  Luckily, I’m pretty sure she was as excited as the girls!  So…when Pip went down for her morning nap this Saturday morning, the girls set up ‘Capri’s Lemonade Stand. 

Since Capri is in 4K right now – she doesn’t have school on Friday’s so she hangs out with us in the store while we work.  Yesterday she spent the majority of her day working on her Lemonade sign.  I honestly don’t know where she gets the concentration or dedication to a particular project that she’s working on but it really is truly amazing for a 4 year old.  AND – isn’t her sign pretty cool?   I was only able to visit for a moment but I was loving what I saw when I was out there.  At the point that I went for my 50-cent cup of lemonade, it was Capri’s turn to spoon out the ice cube for the lemonade – blue of course – remember, we’re selling ‘green’ lemonade here.  It turns out the girls agreed to serve three people and then switch jobs.  It’s seriously awesome when they get along…I just wish it happened all the time… They also decided that girls would get the heart shaped ice cubes and the boys would get just regularly shaped ice cubes.  I guess they almost ‘sold out’ of the heart cubes.   Once the cube was in it was Cedi’s job to fill the cup with the yellow lemonade.  

As the ice melted – the lemonade turned to a lovely green color.  What fun!

Thanks to all the customers who came out and helped make my girls’ morning special!  And thanks to Josie for helping them man their station – I so appreciate it!

When I first started to work in the apple business one of the most important lessons I was taught by the Lapacek’s was to be extremely gentle when handling the apples.  If you handle an apple too harshly it will bruise – even if you just squeeze it – a bruise will form.  Maybe not right away, but it won’t take long and it will be there and we all know that a bruised apple is not good.

So, I would be at the farmer’s markets and people would come by, give my apples a squeeze and say “Are these apples bruised?”.  If they weren’t before…they are now… Instead of trying to explain this each time I figured it might be better said on a shirt. 

please don't squeeze my apples t shirt by KimsCraftyApple
Look at custom shirts online at Zazzle

So…I created my signature shirt ‘please don’t squeeze my apples’.

Recently I’ve had a lot of compliments on my shirt and hoodies so I thought I’d post how you can get your very own.  Head over to my Zazzle shop and you can customize your very own ‘please don’t squeeze my apples’ t-shirt, hoodie, or whatever you want. 

photo by Friends in Photography

Zazzle’s a great way to share your design without investing too much on actual shirts that you won’t know what size and style will sell. 

photo by Friends in Photography

And of course – the back of your shirt will do a little promoting for our orchard too!

I have to tell you – those folks at the market tend to still squeeze my apples but there companion is usually laughing at my shirt. 

The WINNERS of the 2012 Apple-Azing Race were ‘The Beauties and the Beasts’.  The team consisted of Matt Pafford, Sara Pafford, Gabe Morton and Jeff Morton.  They did consistently well throughout the challenges and had a great time doing it all! 

They received the incredible First Place Prize Package:

Amazing book page prints from The Bookish Life:

All that is gold does not glitter - J.R.R. Tolkien quote on The Fellowship of the Ring book page

Not all those who wander are lost - Tolkien quote on The Fellowship of the Ring book page

$20 Gift Certificate from Hydro Street Brewing Company in Columbus

Gift Certificate from Windsor Breads plus a bunch of yummy goodies, coffee and a mug!

Four Maze Passes for Creek Bed Country Farmacy

An incredible Goody Bag from the Poynette Area Public Library. 

Fabulous Goody Bag from Erin Johnson - American Family Insurance Agent!

Goodie bag from The Glitter Workshop

$20 to spend at Persimon Dreams or TheApple

$25 to spend at Lapacek’s Orchard

Congratulations and fun with all your prizes!

This is going to be a quick and dirty post to announce the top three teams in each category.  Once I get the photo’s from Michelle Cross Photography I’ll do a more ‘in depth’ post on each challenge including the top 10 teams from each! 

**All challenges were named after book titles in honor of the money we are raising for the Poynette Area Public Library.

“The Complete idiots guide to working out with a partner” by Aimee Labrecque Challenge **SUBWAY Challenge***

3rd – Beauties & The Beasts

2nd – Can You Dig It?

1st – 2 Bad Apples

“Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck Challenge

3rd – Can You Dig It?

2nd – Poodle Puppies

1st – Zeke’s Crew

"Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum **SUBWAY Challenge***

3rd – Agora Healing

2nd – Zeke’s Crew

1st – Galloping Gimps

“Cider House Rules” by John Irving

3rd – Can You Dig It?

2nd – Beauties & The Beasts

1st – Galloping Gimps

"Arnie the Doughnut" by Laurie Keller

3rd – 2 Bad Apples

2nd – Beauties & The Beasts

1st – Galloping Gimps

"Dewey" by Vicki Myron **SUBWAY Challenge***

3rd – Zeke’s Crew

2nd – Can You Dig It?

1st – Dynamic Duo

"I Scream, You Scream: A Mystery a la Mode" by Wendy Lyn Watson

3rd – Poodle Puppies

2nd – Zeke’s Crew

1st – Galloping Gimps

"Animal Farm" by George Orwell

3rd – 2 Chicks & A Compass

2nd – Can You Dig It?

1st – TIE – Poodle Puppies & Beauties & The Beasts

**SUBWAY Challenges *** – The top place in these challenges win an extra free 6-inch sub from Subway!

Team Sassy Pants figuring out the clue at Creek Bed Country Farmacy – photo by Michelle Cross Photography

Just as I predicted at the beginning of the day – when I blew my whistle and 9:30 for the race to begin – the rain would stop!  And it did!  The weather continued to improve as we got farther in the day and the 17 teams went through the race as fast as they could.  I’ll have LOTS more posts and details about the eight fun challenges we put them through, announcement of the winner and of course, the final total we raised for the library.  But at this time I’m going to leave you with a few ‘sneak peak’ pictures from Michelle Cross Photography and a good night!

Team ‘Pink Ladies’ working on the Library Challenge – photo by Michelle Cross Photography

Team ‘Galloping Gimps’ working hard at the Cider House Rules Challenge photo by Michelle Cross Photography

Team ‘Agora Healing’ standing proud at their scarecrow from the ‘Wizard of Oz’ Challenge. Photo by Michelle Cross Photography

These scarecrows are for sale at the orchard and part of the proceeds will go to the Poynette Area Public Library. 

I’m busy with last minute preparations for tomorrow’s Apple-Azing Race so I’m keeping this a short post.

I just wanted to show off these two cuties chomping away happily on their apples while they relax on chairs from Booth 121.  

You can find quite a few pieces of Leah’s work for sale around our shop and even some outside.  It’s fun, colorful, well made, useful furniture in great colors and styles. 

Although we’re a pre-picked apple orchard only, there is still TONS of fun to be had at our farm.  One of those things is our orchard walk.  Grab a map of the orchard and then just follow the signs. 

photo by Friends in Photography

Along your way you’ll run into Sunflower Lane.  Here you’ll find a field of GINORMOUS Sunflowers!  We want the kids to play and have fun in the sunflowers!  It’s like a mini maze with an end goal of fun. 

When you’re done with your walk and you’re deciding if and what kind of fall decorations you want this year – our HUGE sunflower heads are for sale!  You can see in the photo above that Farmer Frank was really excited about how big they got this year.  The coolest thing about that is that we didn’t water the sunflower field even once this summer!

You’ll have to find the sunflower heads scattered about in the outdoors display area.  If you want to buy one, please just tell me in inside at the register instead of bringing it into the shop.  I’m super allergic to sunflowers and would like to minimize my reaction this year if possible. 

  What would you do with a ginormous sunflower head?

Well…you could shuck the seeds and plant your very own giant sunflower field next year.

Make a Sunflower Birdfeeder.

Or you could even roast the seeds for enjoyable snacking. 

I’m sure there’s other things people could think up – be sure to check them out – it’s pretty amazing just how big they are this year!

Yup – it’s that time of year!  We’re opening up our ‘Pick Your Own Pumpkin Patch’!  We have a ‘Pick Your Own Pumpkin Patch at the northern end of our property – area 12 on the Orchard Map.  You can head out there and pick whichever pumpkin you want.  We have a few wagons but if you’re worried about having to haul your pumpkins I would definitely recommend either bringing your own wagon for hauling or making sure that you pick pumpkins that you can carry back.  We’re always collecting wagons for the orchard so feel free to drop your old ones off!

photo by Friends in Photography

If you don’t feel like heading to the patch you can ‘Pick Your Own Pumpkin’ out of the ones we have pre-picked by the store.  Slightly easier…

Regardless of how you decide to ‘Pick Your Own’ figuring out the price of your pumpkin stays the same.  I’m going to give you a quick step by step on

How to Weigh & Pay for Your Pumpkin and/or Gourds

You are going to take your pumpkin and or gourds first to our ‘Pumpkin Weigh Station’.  The Pumpkin Weigh Station is located in under the lean, just south of the store.  I circled the location on the orchard map above. 

photo by Friends in Photography 

Here you can see the customer bringing her pumpkin over to the weigh station.Picture of weigh station not in use…

photo by Friends in Photography

Next weigh your pumpkin/gourd on the scale.  Each pumpkin and/or gourd should be weighed individually.   

Grab a sheet by the scale to fill out.  There should be sheets and pencils.  If there’s not, come into the store to get more.  Mark on the sheet which wait group each pumpkin falls in – tallying works wonderfully!  You can round down with your weights.  For example if you pumpkin ways 7.56 lbs please mark it in the $3 category.  If it weights 10.25 lbs it’s in the $4 category. 

Feel free to take a break to pet one of our friendly kitties.

Once you have your pumpkins and gourds weighed and tallied put them in your car.  We don’t need to see them in the store – we’re sure you’ve picked out a really amazing pumpkin or gourd but we’re really okay not seeing it. 

Before you leave the orchard though please bring the your tally sheet into the store to pay for your pumpkins/gourds. 

If you forget what I wrote in this blog post once you get to the store – you can find the instructions on the Pumpkin Weigh Station – I’ll probably post a sign a few other places too now that I think about it. 

There are LOTS of really humungous gourds that grew this year!  These are priced the same way as the pumpkins!

We’re very laid back about the pumpkin picking here – we hope you enjoy your experience!

Hi everyone!

Can you believe that the Apple-Azing Race is just a few days away?! I’m super excited for it. Two weekends ago my cousin’s did a ‘dry run’ of the challenges for me to test my clues, supplies, times, etc and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun! I just wanted to send you an email to clarify a few things and get you all as excited as I am about it!

For the day of the race, please arrive at the orchard at 9am to register. You’ll check in at this time, get your t-shirts and your race folder. If you want to ‘add’ to your t-shirts a sort of costume to go with your team name that would be awesome! (if not – no worries). (Let me know if you have decided on a team name…I would like to post these for reporting ‘ranking’ instead of everyone’s names in post-event blogs).

We will be starting the race at 9:30am. I’ll be sending some teams to start at different ‘stations’ of the race. You will be timed during each challenge – not a race to the finish. Your race folder will contain your time sheet that you’ll have the volunteers at each station write your final time on before getting the clue to next challenge. Each of these challenges are for FUN. If you don’t complete everything or do it correctly there will be a penalty (in the form of seconds) that the volunteers will be instructed to add. At the end of the day when I have all the sheets are turned in I’ll be awarding points to each team determined by how their time at that particular challenge fell compared to the other teams. Let me know if you want further clarification of this!

Clues to the challenges will give you hints at the location of the challenge as well as what you may be doing in the challenge. Before you leave to find the challenge you need to decide which of your team members will be completing it. Each clue will indicate how many team members (max 2) will be needed for each challenge. To help you prep for the locations of the challenge please study our orchard map (one will be provided the day of as well): http://www.lapaceksorchard.blogspot.com/2012/09/2012-map-of-orchard.html and look over my blog posts…particularly September blog posts… www.lapaceksorchard.blogspot.com. Also – since this event is to help raise money for the Poynette Area Library each challenge is named after a book title just to add to the fun!

You should plan on being at the orchard for at least 4.5 hours to complete the race (no longer than 6). It will not be a strenuous day but there are a few challenges that only one team will be able to do at a time. They will be limited to 15 minutes for each team, but with 17 teams, that’s a minimum of 4.25 hours. I plan on having some ‘fun’ side games to play in case you’re waiting at one of these stations. At this point I would say to pack a lunch, drinks and snacks. There’s a chance the boy scouts will be selling brats/hot dogs but I won’t find that out until Wednesday. We have soda/water for sale in the orchard and you are all welcome to grab an apple or two from the shop to snack on before/during your journey.

Michelle Cross Photography will be taking photo’s of the challenges throughout the day.

Did you all get a chance to see the prize package?  http://www.lapaceksorchard.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-apple-azing-race-prize-package.html

That’s all I can think of to update you all on now. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns or if I forgot to include anything I should have…

I’m excited for Saturday – I hope you are too!

~Kim Lapacek

www.lapaceksorchard.com

Below is the letter I wrote to our local paper to let people know what was actually happening at our orchard this.  I thought I’d share it with you all as well…

Do you have any apples?

This seems to be the question on everyone’s mind when I run into them at school, the grocery store, or any place that’s not our apple orchard.

To hopefully clear a few questions up I wanted to write this letter to the editor since we won’t be out in public much for the next few months.

The answer: Yes, we do have apples. We estimate we have a 70 to 80% loss on our crop. Because of this significant loss, we decided that we could support only our retail operation at N1959 Kroncke Road, Poynette, WI. This means that we will not be selling at any of our regular farmer’s markets, no wholesale bushels, and the one that hits closest to home to me, no schools.

The good news is that our retail operation feels pretty normal. We grow more than 55 different varieties so there are apples for every taste. We’re still making our famous caramel apples and apple cider donuts on weekends. There are plenty of jams and jellies, applesauce and apple pie in a jar…all made by us right here at the orchard. We still have animals, sunflowers, a tractor tire playground, pick your own raspberries and all the other things you’ve loved about Lapacek’s Orchard in the past. We know you’ll find it’s well worth the trip out to see us.

Apples seem to be ripening much earlier than normal this year. We’re running 2 to 3 weeks ahead of schedule on most varieties. If there is a variety of apple that typically doesn’t ripen until the end of September, it may already be ripe, picked and on our shelves.

When our crop goes back to normal next year (and yes, it will – only thinking positively around here) we definitely plan to continue at Farmer’s Markets and with the school program. Keep an eye on our website, www.lapaceksorchard.com, and our facebook page, www.facebook.com/lapaceksorchard.com to see what’s happening at the orchard, when apples are ripening, cider pressing schedules and other special events. Thanks so much for your continued support through this interesting apple season.

~Kim Lapacek

Happy Saturday everyone!  It’s going to be a BEAUTIFUL day today!  Be sure to head out to the orchard to pick your own raspberries, grab a bag of apples, cider, donuts, and caramel apples.  Also – it’s time to get canning!  I can’t tell you how amazing it is to be able to preserve fresh fruits and veggies to enjoy year round.  I wanted to post the salsa recipe from one of our winner’s at our first Salsa Saturday.  You can come to the orchard and pick your own tomatoes and peppers to use in this great recipe. 

Joan’s Salsa

10 cups tomatoes peeled and quartered
3 1/2 cup chopped onions
2 cups green peppers chopped
3 jalapeno peppers chopped  (more or less depending how hot you like it)
8 cloves garlic minced
1 1/2 cup vinegar
2 Tbs oregano
6 Tbs salt
2 Tbs chili powder
1 1/2 Tbs cummin
16 oz tomato paste
Boil all together except for the tomato paste for 15 minutes.  Add paste and boil for 5 more minutes.

Put into jars and hot water bath for 8 minutes.
This makes 8 pints

Madison Audubon Society is looking for volunteers to help collect seed at Goose Pond Sanctuary Prairies at Arlington. 

Help Harvest the Native Plant Seeds to create a new restoration on Saturdays from September 8th through October 27th from 9:30am to Noon. 

Meet at Sanctuary Mangers’ Residence

W7503 Kampen Road

Arlington

each Saturday in September and October

See map and brochure on Goose Pond kiosk at Prairie Lane or at your local library.

For more information call Mark or Sue Martin at 608-333-9645 and see Madison Audubon Society’s web site at www.madisonaudobon.org

On your way to help with the seed collection and restoration be sure to stop by our orchard and pick up a bag of fresh apple cider donuts and/or fresh apples.  If you wake up late, stop by afterwards!

Give time now – take future satisfaction and pleasure in the sanctuary’s 600 acres of restored prairies on Kampen Road, Hopkins Road and Goose Pond Road.

More info about Goose Pond here:  http://madisonaudubon.org/audubon/directions/goosepond.htm

On Saturday, September 8th, Monty’s Blue Plate Diner took a fun group of people on a little bus tour.  They stopped at some local farms on their way out to our apple orchard.  Once the group arrived at our orchard I gave a ‘mini’ tour of our place and talked about what happens at the orchard. 

  A ‘meadow-esque’ area of our orchard was transformed into a lovely dining area.  With linens, fresh flowers, menus and fresh apples for an appetizer of course!House of Brews Beer had some delicious samples of beverages for us all to enjoy before and during dinner.   

Throughout all of this an incredible mouth watering meal at the orchard was being cooked out in the orchard.  The menu included:

Cheddar and chive biscuits with Lapacek’s apple butter

Fennel and cider roast pork with sweet corn, apple BBQ sauce, cilantro and lime

Marinated beet salad with smoked almonds, baby greens and a sherry vinaigrette

Heirloom tomato salad with blue cheese, grilled bread, home-grown basil, olive oil and vinegar

Charred leeks with romesco sauce

sweet curry roasted root vegetables

Tiramisu made with Just Coffee coffee

It was unbelievable!  So delicious.  I know my entire family ate like Kings on Saturday. 

Two of our girls, Cedi and Capri, enjoyed dinner immensely. I have to admit, Pip was being a bit cranky.

We did get a few raindrops during dinner…but it was all worth it…

There was a double rainbow! 

We ended dinner with the mouth water tiramasu…so delicious!

Once dinner was done people wandered back to the bus, but first made a stop in our little apple store/gift shop.  I think they were impressed with their visit and I hope to see many back here again. 

The girls, my cousins and I waved good-bye to the bus as it pulled away to go home.  Minutes later – the rain came.  And it didn’t stop – the workers got a bit soaked as they cleaned up everything.  I’ll admit – I stayed dry – I was in the house with the girls.

This was an amazing event put on by Monty’s Blue Plate Diner and I can’t wait to see what they come up with to do next year!

Last season I featured some of the photographer’s that have used the orchard for photo shoots (Friends in Photography, Funky Monkey Photography, and Michelle Cross Photography) I love letting photographers use our orchard for photo shoots because it tends to expose us to people who may not have known what a fabulous place we are for families.  For me – it’s a win win so if you’re a photographer don’t hesitate to call and check out our location.

Since my girls were recently ‘shot’ at the orchard by a great local photographer I wanted to bring back my features.

Booth 121 let Karmen Linder of Karmen Linder Photography know about our photogenic orchard after the 2012 Craft-Apple-Ar.  Karmen contacted me immediately and came out to check out the spot.  I’m pretty sure she had ideas as soon as she saw our place.  So, a few days after that she came to do a mini photo shoot of my girls so she could promote Mini Sessions at the Orchard. 

   Karmen did a great job to get my girls to cooperate with her so she could get some great shots. 

Of course, I had to snap some pictures of Karmen getting her shots.         Pip was a bit trickier than the older girls…but an apple on the head worked pretty good.. not quite as good as an apple (or 2) in her mouth!

Here’s Karmen’s signature shot that she took of Cedi!  Loving that girls freckles!

Check out and ‘Like’ Karmen’s facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Karmen-Lindner-Photography/53316167103?ref=ts

She’s already posted some of her shots of other adorable kiddo’s she’s gotten at the orchard.  I’m not sure if she has any MINI’s still open but don’t hesitate to contact her to schedule something!

Contact Karmen today to schedule your photo session at the orchard:  simplycandidphoto@yahoo.com