It’s bittersweet…the second season of ‘Kids in the Garden’ is over…but it does mean that apple season is about to begin…

We had yet another wonderful group of kiddo’s and parents join us at the orchard over the past 9 weeks.  I can’t express how great it was yet again to see all the support and interest in growing your own food.

We were able to find just a few of five varieties of apples for the kids to sample – both fresh and in applesauce.  To start the day I had the kids’ help me peel/core/slice one of each of the five apples to make into applesauce.  We put them in our mini crock pot and then crossed our fingers that they would be ready in an hour and half when the class ended…Then it was time to check on our gardens one last time.  The pole beans are tall and producing lots of beans – they were delicious!  Both raw and I personally like to steam them.  Wyatt was a fan!Next we checked on our other big garden. We pulled multiple types of summer squash to sample and found some baby tomatoes.  The kids’ also helped us pull the majority of our onion crop.  It’s time to get those out and we will have onions for sale at the orchard this fall – a definite success!We had to stop by the blueberry bush and try a few yummy berries on our way to the Sunflower field.I managed to get a really nice group shot in front of the super tall flowers!  It’s going to fun to play in this fall!Now – since it was the last day we had lots of things for the kids to snack on.  The baby tomatoes, freshly picked vegetables, fresh apple slices with two different dips.  One was the dill dip from a previous week and then Diane made up one that mixed our ‘Caramel Apple Jam’ with peanut butter – this one was a big hit.  I’ll have to get the directions from her and post it.

Earlier in the day the girls helped me make a super special snack for the kids – Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins.

  We had picked the berries for the muffins the night before.When I bake (which doesn’t happen often because I can’t stop myself from then eating it.  all of it.) I like to get all my ingredients out right away.  Then, if I don’t have something I know before I am in the middle of a project.The girls helped me measure, mix and pour.The final step (before baking) was to fold in the fresh raspberries.  At this point – I already knew the muffins would be good!  I doubled the recipe on my blog and it made 48 regular size muffins.

We had also picked blueberries to make a ‘Blueberry Chocolate Chip Muffin’ – same as the raspberry muffins, just with blueberries but at this point I was sick of making muffins.  I decided I would do a bread.  The bread needed to cook longer but was just as good.  Unfortunately – I learned the lesson that you should let your bread cool in your pan at least a little while before you flip it onto the cooling rack…oops.  Still tasty – just not pretty enough for public viewing…

Well – that’s it.  The 2013 Kids in the Garden Program came to a successful end.  From the feedback I heard from parents and kids it was a great experience all around and I know we enjoyed doing it.  Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen!