Laura in the photo booth!

These fun sisters spent a great day at the Orchard with their mom!

 

Sunday morning fun at the Photo booth!

Be sure to stop by the photo booth and take some fun pictures!  If you want to be featured on the blog just share them on the Lapacek’s Orchard Facebook page or tag them on facebook by typing @Lapacek’s Orchard when you post! 

Chicken-Apple Pot Pie

also good with turkey

2 C cubed peeled apple

1/4 C chopped onion

2 T. butter

2 cans chicken soup

2 C cubed cold chicken

1/3 C raisins (optional)

1/4 t. nutmeg

Pastry for a one crust pie

 

Sauté onion in butter until golden.  Mix with remaining ingredients and put in an oiled casserole or loaf dish.  Top with crust.  Cut vent holes in crust.  Bake at 425 degrees, 30 minutes.

WOW!  All I can say about this is wow!

So, I peeled, cored, and sliced the most popular apple in our orchard – the Honeycrisp.  And I put the slices in the crock pot on low for a few hours.  Now folks LOVE to eat this apple.  I’ll admit – I think it’s good but I like a lot of different varieties too.  It is an expensive apple though so we haven’t cooked with it much.  But – I had to sauce it so I could let you all know what would happen. 

The sauce was chunky, juicy, and DELICIOUS!  It was super, super good applesauce!  It is definitely ranked at the top of my personal sauce list!  WOW!  Now, with the way they cooked I would say they would be great in a crisp or as sauce.  Hmmm…I’m thinking I may even try them with our Taffy Apple Cake mix…  BUT I personally would not used them in a pie.  They are just so juicy I think a crust may have a hard time not getting soggy.  But as a sauce – seriously – WOW!

I’m announcing the 3rd Annual Apple-Palooza a bit earlier than normal.  It’s because I have something exciting to announce! 
When?  Sunday, October 27th
Where?  Lapacek’s Orchard
What:

Apple Pie Contest

The Apple Pie Contest is an event that is here to stay at Lapacek’s Orchard.  The first year, 20 pies were entered and the second year our judges had to try 24 pies.  We’re hoping for even more pies this year!

2012 Pie Winner – Brenda Endres
2011 Apple Pie Winner – Melissa Walsh
The judges will decide winners for – Best Pie Overall and three runner ups, Most Creative Pie, and Prettiest Pie.  The entire event is meant to be fun so I hope you decide to ‘throw your pie’ in the ring and give it a go!

If you ware interested in baking a pie for the contest please send me an email: {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com} with your name and pie baking story (if you have one – if you don’t have a story, no worries). Plan on arriving at the orchard by 12:45pm with your pie. Pie viewing and photo’s will take place at 1:00pm and judging will start at 1:30pm.

Once judging is complete - I'm guessing around 3:00ish... we'll be cutting all the pies up into slices and selling them for $1 a slice.  100% of the money made from the apple pie slice sales will go to the PAD Parent Group towards the new playground in the Poynette School District.  Food Fight Restaurant Group is once again sponsoring our Pie Contest!  More details to come!

Old-Fashioned Cider Pressing Demo:

“Come Squeeze Our Apples”

Jared will once again be demonstrating how we used to press our apples to make cider with an old fashioned wood cider press. These demo’s will take place at 10:30am, 12:30pm and 2:30pm and will take approximately 30 to 45 minutes.
We were unable to have this as part of our event last year due to the poor apple crop but it’s a definite go this season.

Carved Pumpkin Contest

During the first Apple-Palooza, in 2011, we discovered that there’s quite a bit of standing around while the pies get judged.  We’re going to have a ‘Carved Pumpkin Contest’.  People of all ages can bring their carved pumpkin – anytime before 12:45, put it on display and then we’ll all walk by and vote for our personal favorite!  I’ll have a prize for the best carved pumpkin – still to be determined.  If you come in costume – you’ll get a treat!  (My biggest sadness about living in the country is that no one trick-or-treats out here…we go and steal a neighborhood so my kids can though…).

Rock 'N' Wool Acres: A Wisconsin Winery

Our cousin, Shaun Lapacek, will be talking a bout the winery he and his father have opened up in Poynette - Rock N Wool Acres.

Hard Cider Info Booth

Our good friend Jay Walters will have a booth set up from NOON to 3pm to talk about and answer your questions on how to make hard cider.  Jay has been doing this for years and we have helped drink and enjoy many of his products for years - this guy knows what he's talking about!

Below is a rough itinerary for Apple-Palooza.  I will update it as necessary so keep an eye on the blog for any changes or additions to the day that may occur.

Preliminary ITINERARY:

10:00—Store Opens for Business
10:30—Old Fashion Cider Pressing Demo
11:30 - Rock N Wool - A Wisconsin Winery Arrives
12:00 - Hard Cider Info Booth Open until 3
12:30—Old Fashion Cider Pressing Demo
12:45—Deadline for Contest Pies & Carved Pumpkins to be Delivered
1:00—Viewing of the Apple Pies
1:30—Apple Pie Contest Judging Starts
1:30 – Voting starts for the Carved Pumpkins -
2:30—Old Fashion Cider Pressing Demo
3:00 - Hard Cider Info Booth Closes
3:00-4:00 – Pie and Pumpkin winners are announced
5:00—Store Closes

Pie Judges WANTED!

So…the big news with this post is that we’re looking for some apple pie judges to fill in a few vacant spots.  A couple of our previous judges have prior obligations for October 27th and will be unable to judge again this year.  That’s where you come in…Do you want to be an apple pie judge?  Here’s your chance!  You must be able to commit to be at the orchard from 1:00pm until the judging is complete.
I’m now accepting applications for judges.  I will then post your answers online and we’ll let our followers decide who they want to judge the pies!  I’m not 100% sure how many judges I need yet but I know at least two spots our open. 
To get your name in the hat for being an apple pie judge email me at lapaceksorchard{at}gmail{dot}com with answers to the following questions:
Name:
Contact Info (phone number, email):
Have you ever judged a pie and/or food contest before?
Why do you think you’d be a good apple pie judge?
What is your favorite thing about eating pie?
How many years have you been enjoying pie?
What qualities do you look for in a good pie?
Do you believe you could be a ‘fair and unbiased’ pie judge?
Anything else you’d like to share with the voters about your pie judging dreams?

It’s not a secret that we’re busy during apple season.  It’s also not a secret that we have three little girls.  We are so fortunate to have a network of amazing family, friends, and neighbors, that help look after, watch out for, play, chauffer, and entertain our kiddo’s when Jared and I are just too busy.  BUT we still love to make time for the kids when we can – even it means they have to help us doing orchard things.  Cedi’s pretty decent at picking apples and really amazing at helping with Pip, Capri is amazing at picking pints of baby tomatoes, and Pip, well, Pip is 2. 

The other morning, Papa (aka Jared) let her help him sort apples.  She was supposed to look for bad spots and if there were some put it in the bushel behind her.  If not, the bushel on her right.  She did okay…Papa had to remind her every once in awhile that she needed to be looking for bad spot.  Overall, it was just an adorable moment I was lucky enough to witness between father and daughter.

Since she did such a good job, we rewarded her with an apple cider donut and had her ‘snuggle’ up to the giant ‘Jumbo’ apple. 

The rumors are true!  We now offer our very own Lapacek’s Orchard Cider/Tea/Coffee Mugs!

These mugs were handmade by Deneen Pottery in St. Paul, Minnesota.  I’m a HUGE fan of supporting handmade and am so happy to have found these!  We are offering them this year in red and kiwi green.  If they all sell…I’ll be ordering more in other styles so…get yours while they’re here!

 

 

 

APPLES! APPLES! APPES! COOKING WITH APPLES is the second cookbook I found the other night.. Definitely some interesting looking recipes in here…

I’ll post the picture of the cookbook each recipe is coming from on my Sunday posts.

 

 

Cabbage and Apple Salad

1 pkg. lemon Jell-o

4 tsp. vinegar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 C shredded cabbage

1 c. diced apples

1/4 C. chopped sweet pickle

Dissolve Jell-o in 1 pt. hot water.  Add the vinegar and salt.  Chill until slightly thickened then fold in the cabbage, apples, and sweet pickle.  Mold and chill.  Serves 6.

The Crimson Crisp is another new variety in our shop this year.  It seems to me that the majority of the people that sample them end up buying a bag. 

They are a very firm, crisp apple with a tart, rich flavor. 

I peeled, cored, and sliced the apples and put them into my slow cooker.  These crimson crisp turned into a smooth sauce that was slightly tart.  The sauce tasted decent but there was not a super amount of flavor.  Again – I would definitely recommend mixing these apples with another sauce to help deepen the flavor after the apples are cooked. 

Jared and I went and picked the largest apples that we grow at our orchard today – the Jumbo’s.  If we thinned the tree’s properly we could grow apples up to 2.5 lbs.  This was the biggest one that we had…above I have a photo of it next to a quarter.

As you can see it only weighs in at 1.6 lbs.

Cedi, Pip and my mom actually enjoyed half of one of these with their dinner.  It is a juicy, tart apple.  Just a couple of these would be al you need to make one pie!  We only have 1 bushel total of these this 2013 season so stop in ASAP if you want to give them a try!

One of our newer varieties, the Smokehouse, is next up for saucing experiment. 

The Smokehouse apple is only new to us.  It is considered an heirloom variety apple that was discovered in Pennsylvania in 1837.  It’s flesh is crisp, yellowish, and moderately fine grained.  It is a good quality cooking, eating and baking apple. 

Let’s see how it sauced!

I peeled, cored, and sliced the apples and put them into my little crock pot.  A few hours later I had applesauce! 

The smokehouse kept there shape when cooked and made a chunky textured sauce.  The color was slightly brown once cooked. 

I felt that the sauce lacked the great flavor the fresh apple had.  That being said I think it would do really well mixed with a tarter apple for sauce.  I definitely would recommend this one. 

The picture on the left is our daughter Capri in 2009 (age 1.5) with a wolf river apple.  The picture on the right was taken this year (5.5) with a wolf river apple.  They are BIG this year!

 

My father-in-law just brought in a HUGE Gala – bigger than we’ve ever seen.  We’re also finding some monstrous cortland’s and NW Greening’s this year.  It’s pretty cool to find the big ones and it makes picking a bit easier with the crates filling up quickly. 

These are a healthier version than many scones, and they are absolutely delicious with fresh raspberries from the orchard. This recipe originally from A Farm Girl's Dabbles was forgiving enough to handle me not properly following the mixing instructions despite knowing better. Here's my slight variation on the original recipe.


Raspberry Scones

This recipe from Bake at 350 caught my eye because we have a plethora of applesauce, and it's a relatively healthy quick bread recipe. The juxtaposition of seeds with sweet applesauce creates an interesting texture and flavor.

Don't be intimidated by the long ingredient list. It's an easy recipe to pull together.

I pre-sliced the bread and flash froze the loaves, so we just grab a slice or two when we need it for a lunch or snack.

5-Seed Applesauce Bread
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1 Tbsp. flax seeds
1 Tbsp. sesame seeds
1 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1/3 cup pecans, roughly chopped
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
3/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
4 eggs
1 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325°F.  Grease two 8" loaf pans, and set aside. Roughly chop the sunflower, pumpkin and flax seeds. (You can also use a coffee grinder to pulse the flax to crack the seeds.)  Place in a large bowl.

Add the chopped pecans, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cloves.  Stir together, and set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk the oil and applesauce together until combined.  Add the eggs one at a time, whisking each well.  Whisk in the honey and vanilla.  Finally, whisk in the buttermilk.

Stir the dry mixture into the wet, stirring just until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated.  Divide evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pans and place on a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Makes 2 loaves.

the big fat red juicy Apple Cook Book. 

I rediscovered this cookbook the other night (and one other) and found some really ‘interesting’ sounding recipe’s in it.  Since this blog started out with a new recipe every Sunday – I think this apple season I’m going to post a new ‘old’ recipe every Sunday.

Apple Butter Bundt Cake

1 pkg yellow cake mix

1/2 C finely chopped nuts

1 C peeled, diced apples

1 C dairy sour cream

1/3 C apple butter (available at Lapacek’s Orchard)

4 eggs

Filling:

1 C chopped nuts

2 T brown sugar

2 t cinnamon

 

Glaze:

1 C powdered sugar

2-3 T apple butter

Blend all cake ingredients and beat for 2 minutes.  Pour 1/3 of batter in prepared bundt pan; sprinkle with 1/2 the filling; and repeat these two layers.  Cover with remaining batter.  Bake at 325 degrees, 50-55 minutes.  Cool in pan and invert on serving plate. Spoon glaze over cake.

The Jonamac is a high quality McIntosh-type dessert apple. Firm and crisp. McIntosh x Jonathan; Developed by the NY State Agricultural Experiment Station, introduced in 1972.

Many customers really enjoy this ‘sharp’ tasting macintosh. The jonamac tend to be smaller apples which is perfect for snacking or lunches. 

I peeled, cored, and sliced up my jonamac apples and put them into my mini crock pot.  A few stirs and hours later I had some delicious sauce.  It cooked down into pretty much mush. The sauce was much sweeter than I expected it to be – I really enjoyed it.  I made the Jonamac at the same time I made the wealthy and I preferred the jonamac sauce where Jared preferred the tarter Wealthy sauce. 

Be prepared – this is beyond delicious.  You may not want to read any farther…You’ve been warned.

Bake up a box of your favorite Brownie mix per box instructions.  I actually doubled the batch because Uncle Bob was here for lunch and I know he loves desserts. 

Poke holes in the top of the brownies…I used a knife.  A fork would work too.Take a jar of Lapacek’s Orchard’s ‘Chocolate Raspberry Spread.Pour it over the brownies.  If you do a single batch, half the jar would work fine…I used the entire thing since I doubled the batch.

Let the brownies cool and sauce seep into them.

Cut and serve with whipped cream or ice cream. 

Enjoy!

Twice this week I’ve heard stories of people referring to our orchard, Lapacek’s Orchard, as 'my’ orchard.  I can’t even tell you how happy this makes me to hear.

One story was of a shy little boy who is in school for the very first time and he heard his teacher saying they would be taking a field trip to Lapacek’s Orchard.  He blurted right out in front everyone, “That’s MY Orchard!” excited as can be to share the fun with his newly found friends.

photo taken by Friends in Photography

The second was a friend of ours was at work and him and his co-workers were discussing apple orchards…  They go to a different orchards than ours and he said, “Oh, you have to check out my orchard!” and proceeded to tell them where we were located and all about what we offer.

These stories make me so happy to hear!  I love that what we’ve created out here on our apple orchard makes our customers feel as if they are a part of it – that’s just what we want!  I also truly believe that’s how we made it through the losses of last year and it’s what makes me happy to go to work everyday.  Without our amazing customers we wouldn’t be what we are.

What about our orchard makes you feel as if it is YOUR orchard? I would love to hear more stories!

Yesterday I took a few minutes to sauce up some Wealthy apples.  Wealthy’s are a striped red fruit with a tart balanced flavor. It is a multi-purpose apple, but especially good for cooking. Keeps well. Cherry Crab x Sops of Wine

We have quite a few customers that come in and are really grateful that we grow wealthy’s.  It’s their FAVORITE apple for making pies and/or sauce.  I just had a lady come in today who’s mother used to make her drive to a random orchard hours from her home to buy wealthy’s…and then she discovered that we grew them.

The wealthy apple was also the apple I featured this week for the folks that signed up for our apple share through the Burr Oak Garden CSA.

Anyway – I peeled, cored and sliced the wealthy’s and tossed them into the mini slow cooker.  The apples became slightly brown right away.  I noticed that they stayed this color even when they were done cooking so the sauce was sort of a light brownish looking color. 

The apples mushed up somewhat and remained slightly chunky.  I like this kind of texture in my applesauce.  I felt that the wealthy’s had a unique tart flavor.  I can understand why if people like this flavor they would want it for their baking apples.  I personally was not a huge fan of the sauce – too tart for me.  But Jared tried it too and enjoyed the flavor. 

Yoga Anywhere!

Tammy from Circle of Stones Wellness and Yoga Therapy will be coming to the orchard to set up a Yoga Anywhere class for adults, kids, families, etc! It will be an easy and gentle class so anyone can participate. Tammy will provide blankets and straps that are best on the grass so just bring yourselves!

The class costs - whatever you want to donate and/or can afford. ($5 to $15/person is pretty typical)
I'm excited about this and I'm pretty sure Cedi and Capri will love it too!

 

We have a facebook event started so be sure to help spread the news about this great event

photo taken by Karmen Linder Photography

… seriously – don’t you just want to squeeze Pip!!!!

I’m sure many of you have noticed that fabulous dresses you often spot my girls in!  Many come from Matilda Jane (the other's probably come from The Measure). 

photo taken by Karmen Linder Photography 

Capri and Cedi – May 2013…

photo taken by Karmen Linder Photography 

Cedi and Capri – August 2013 – what a difference a few months and haircuts make!

Since I’ve last shopped the Matilda Jane Trunk – two new releases of clothing lines have come out!  I’m so excited to have Nicole from Waunakee come to the orchard and showcase the special trunk this Saturday at the orchard!  She’ll be here, at the orchard, from 11 to 3!  Great clothing for women and children!  Nicole loves when people try on the Matilda Jane clothing so don’t be shy!  I have yet to see someone not smiling when they’re in their MJ!

 

Can’t make it on Saturday?  No worries!  Check out the collection online: https://www.matildajaneclothing.com/ and place your order by emailing Nicole at:  nmihalas@matildajaneclothing.com!

I’ve been hearing  a lot of ‘WOW!  This place is different!’ and ‘WOW!  You guys have been busy.’ as people walk into the store this season.  Yes – we put on an addition – or more correctly Jared and Frank put on an addition.  So…here’s the story of what we did:

Between the 2012 and 2013 apple season we put up an addition the store.  We just felt it was time to make it a bit roomier and easier to get around on those busy September and October Weekends. 

The Amish came down for three days and helped Frank and Jared put up the steel portion of the addition.  Then, Frank (aka Francis Charles) hauled up saw logs from various trees on his property to have the Amish for them to cut into boards.  Jared and Frank used this wood to cover the interior walls of the shed.

Jared stopped at the Restore Shop in Madison to find the windows we needed to make the addition nice and bright.

Frank also had a building on another property with a mezzanine that wasn’t being used.  All of the materials used to create the loft in the addition were repurposed from the unused mezzanine.  At this point the loft is meant to be a safe place for our three girls to play, study and relax during the busy days of apple season.

Meade Construction Company out of Lodi came and poured the concrete floors to finish the addition.

An overhang also now connects the two shed.  We have some translucent roofing in to let the light in and help create a ‘magic apple fairy walkway’ feel (remember…we have three little girls…everything revolves around fairies).  This way, if it’s raining, there’s still a place to hang out comfortably while you enjoy playing with the kitties or eating your caramel apples.

We hope you like the changes we made and that your visit to the orchard is a little less hectic because of it.

A view of the addition looking from the goat/chicken/rabbit area…

Here are some great pictures our customers/visitors snapped at our photo booth!

My High School Friend Nichole enjoying the props of the booth!

Karmen Linder of Karmen Linder Photography snapped this picture of her daughter just chillin’ in our booth.

Our cousins little guys had fun putting on some crazy big sunglasses in the booth!

You can be featured on our blog too!  Either share your pictures and/or tag Lapacek’s Orchard on facebook and be sure to use the hashtag #lapaceksorchard for twitter and/or instagram!

What are those? 

We have these weird looking squash that we grew this year called a Tromboncino Squash.  Many folks think they are a gourd but they’re actually a delicious summer squash.

I like to slice them up and steam them for a few minutes.  They are savory and almost butter-y tasting without adding a thing.  You can also slice them up and enjoy them fresh in some dip or sauté them like you would any summer squash.

Of course, I googled Tromboncino Squash to find out a bit more.  They can be picked anywhere from a few inches in size to their full length of 3 feet.  Right now we’re enjoying them fresh but if we leave to fully mature on the vine we can also enjoy them as a winter squash.  I’m excited to try them this way this winter too!

We were able to have a few of yet another new variety of apples to this orchard this season.  Hopefully next season we’ll have even more so more folks can get a bag (or two).  The Akane is one of the parents of the popular Sansa.  It’s a nice, crisp early apple with a sweet, tart flavor.  The feedback from our customers/apple eaters was this is definitely going to be a good apple.

Diane saved a few of the more damaged ones and I was able to make it into some sauce for my Saucesational Experiment. 

I peeled, cored and sliced the akane’s up and piled them full into my mini crock pot.  They kept their shape for quite awhile in the heat but all of a sudden I came to stir them and they were done!  The cooked down pretty smooth but I almost felt the texture was slightly flaky. 

Jared really liked this tart flavorful sauce, but for me it was a bit too tart.  I tried it right after the sansa sauce and it felt sour to me.  But, since the Sansa’s made such a sweet sauce, I waited, and tried it again later with a fresh pallet.  Still tart but no longer sour. 

Definitely a different flavor and texture but if you’re into tart applesauce this may be the apple for you in 2014. 

We sell two different types of caramels in our shop and I often get asked the difference.Well – first we have our caramel apple coating.  This is the same caramel we use to make our famous caramel apples.  It has to be heated preferably in a double boiler type situation to become viscous enough for dipping and/or coating.  Sometimes, if we have to go somewhere and bring a ‘dish to pass’ we’ll cut up some ginger golds (don’t brown when cut) and then drizzle some heated up caramel over them to make a nice caramel apple platter.

The other caramel we offer is this Caramel Apple Topping. We have it in regular caramel, cranberry caramel and cherry caramel.  This is already viscous without having to heat it up.  It’s great for dipping apples into, topping ice cream with or even mixing in with you coffee.  We purchase it from End of the Trail Candy Shoppe so it is still Wisconsin made.