We’re officially opening up our ‘Pick Your Own Pumpkin Patch’!  We have a ‘Pick Your Own Pumpkin Patch at two spots in orchard this year, just north of the playground area and on the south side along the orchard walk.  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.

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

It’s time to analyze another one of the newer varieties of apples at the orchard – the Frostbite!  Frostbite is a grandparent of the honeycrisp and you would understand why after you take a bite and see the crispness of this apple!

I peeled, cored and sliced the apples and put them in the mini crock pot.  And let the apples cook for a bit.

Before long, I stirred the apples and it was sauce!  The frostbite cooked into a chunky/smooth sauce.  It had a tangy flavor but it was missing something.  I made this at the same time as the Golden Supreme and the Golden Supreme was definitely the winner of the two.  Once the experiment was done though – I mixed the two together and it wasn’t long before it was all devoured by my kiddo’s!

Hi everyone!  We’re over a month into apple season and things are going so well!  Thank you to everyone who has been visiting and we hope to welcome even more folks over the next couple of months!

I’ve had a question asked a lot at the orchard recently that I thought I would quick cover here for you with an explanation of why we do things the way we do at Lapacek’s Orchard.

Canopy of Apples – photo by Karmen Lindner Photography

Are you a pick your own orchard?

No – we are not a pick your own orchard.  Why?  Our orchard is planted fairly haphazardly as far as varieties go.  There could be a block of 10 apples in one section and a random one right in the middle of that.  Also – the varieties all ripen at different times in different places all over the orchard.  We just don’t have a way to keep everyone picking apples that are ripe and delicious so we decided not to pay the extra money the insurance would cost to have a pick your own orchard. 

We still love to have you walk through the orchard and see how gorgeous it is but please come in the store to try the different apples we have already picked for you. 

We completely understand that going apple picking is a fun fall activity to do with your family.  Luckily, there is an awesome resource provided by the Wisconsin Apple Growers (WAGA) on their website – www.waga.org.  There is a map of all the Wisconsin orchards registered with WAGA and the green markers indicate a pick your own orchard. 

I’m back at it!  There are still a few apple varieties that we grow that I haven’t made into sauce and analyzed.

Today I’m here to talk about the Golden Supreme.  This is a newer apple at Lapacek’s Orchard and it’s similar to the Golden Delicious but it ripens earlier in the season.

I simply put the apples on my peeler/corer/slicer and cut up the apples.  I then put them in a mini crock pot and turned it on.

A few hours later I had sauce!  I typically would stir everyone once in awhile during the sauce making but I may have been busy in the shop and forgot about the apples until I came in for lunch.  It was a delicious sauce though!  Chunky which I like.  Sweet but a super good apple flavor.  I would highly recommend these for applesauce any day of the week! 

I typically just cook down apples to make my applesauce.  But that’s because I am testing to see how the apples cook so I can help all the customers that come into the shop with questions.  When I normally cook – I love to play around with different seasonings and flavors.  So – I decided to play with some applesauce.  I’m using Paulareds for this sauce because right now it is in it’s prime for sauce making. 

First – I took five paulared apples and I peeled cored and sliced them and put them into my mini crock pot. 

Then – I added 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract (I LOVE vanilla!). 

2 tsp. of honey

1/2 tsp of Apple Pie Spice

I dumped it all on top of the apples and then I stirred things up, put the lid on and let the sauce cook for about two hours.  Whenever I was in the house I would stir it up. 

Before we knew it we had a delicious pot of vanilla applesauce.  My girls LOVED it and it was hard to get Cedi to stop eating it so everyone could give it a try. 

Vanilla Applesauce

by Kim Lapacek

5 Large Paulared apples

2 tsp honey

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp apple pie spice