Hi everyone! We're opening for the 2020 apple season on Friday, August 14th! 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from our entire family!

Just like that, the 2018 apple season has come to an end.  Thank you to all who have come out and supported our farm and family.  It’s because of all of you we can continue to keep living this dream of ours.  We couldn’t be more thankful for that.

If you have any memories from the 2018 apple season or favorite things we did (*clears throat* “Cider After Dark”)  feel free to leave a comment!  We’d love to hear from you! I know we all enjoyed the season and have plans already to make next season even more magical!

Keep an eye on this blog, facebook, the newsletter, instagram, etc if we have any fun things happening “off season”.  I’m not sure if we will or not yet but you just never know what I’ll dream up next!

This special orchard shirt came to be simply as a way to help educate folks that apples bruise very easily.  The best way to not have a bruised apples is to not squeeze it, not drop it and treat it with gently care.  This is why all of our apples are picked by hand and handled as carefully as possible.

I sold these tshirts at the shop for a few years … there are still a few there.  I believe we have a bunch of adult larges (it may be medium) and then kids’ sizes.  I just had to snap a picture of this lovely customer that came to visit the shop sporting her very own Lapacek’s Orchard “please don’t squeeze my apples” tshirt!

Sometimes when it’s a bit slow in the store we just have to try out a new fun beverage!  Check out Diane and me mixing our own unpasteurized, unpreserved apple cider with Fireball!

WE concluded that approximately 8oz of cider mixed with a shot and a half of fireball whiskey is the perfect combination!

Thank you to all for making 2017 a great year!

Happy Saturday morning from Lapacek’s Orchard everyone!  Today’s forecast will be a little less extensive than last as I of course am running behind this morning.  There’s still a lot of great info on last weeks though so be sure to check it out HERE to find out more.  I do my best to keep the apple varieties that are in the shop listed on the upper left of the blog. The weekends here get a bit crazy so I’ll update whenever I get a moment but if it says low it may run out before I have a chance to take it off the list.

Apples to try this weekend …

Arlet – a modern apple for a modern taste.  This apple has a unique sweet/tart flavor.  It didn’t make it commercially because it’s prone to russetting on the skin – which really doesn’t effect the apple at all … just the look.

Rebella – We have a decent crop of these great apples this season so be sure to give them a try.  As I was researching farther into them I read that they are insensitive to frost … which helps explain why they don’t seem as affected as some of the other varieties.  Just a random fun fact I guess.

Crimson Crisp – these are sort of hidden in the shop … but are a fabulous apple!  They are tart and crisp and soon to be your new favorite apple!

Shizuka – not only does this apple have a fabulous name to say … but it has a wonderfully, appealing sweet-tart flavor.  Definitely add these to your list of apples to sample.

 

Our pumpkin patches are officially open!  Grab a wagon if you see one around the shop or bring your own!  Head out into the patches (you can find out where by grabbing a map), weigh your pumpkins at our pumpkin weigh station under the lean, mark the sheet you find at the station appropriately, put your pumpkins in your vehicle, and bring the sheet you marked into the shop to pay!  It sounds complicated but it’s really pretty simple … we’re just trying to avoid everyone lugging their pumpkins into the shop if we possibly can!

We have some pie pumpkins and winter squash to get you started!  We haven’t picked it all yet but we have picked what’s ripe so far.

Our instagram challenge is #orchardbeauty – see if you can take a picture at the orchard that captures the random beauty you find like Karmen Lindner did with the bench HERE and the door HERE.

See you at the orchard for some apples and fun!  Hope you enjoyed this weekends Orchard Forecast!

PS – I will be watching my phone a bit for texting as I work the register this morning … both of my girls are competing at there first gymnastics meet this season.  Luckily I have an amazing support system and there aunt is able to take them but she’ll be texting me there scores throughout the day!  Thanks for understanding!

Hi everyone!  It’s with a bittersweet mood that I type up the end of the season blog for this year.  It has been an incredible 2015 apple season – seriously, incredible.

I have to say a huge ‘THANK YOU” to all of you for that!  We had countless new visitors to the orchard this year that came because they heard from a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, what an amazing place this was.  Without you and your support – my families dream would not be possible.

All of the photo’s on this post were shared to the Lapacek’s Orchard facebook page. 

photo shared by Donna F

There were TONS Of great memories created at the orchard this season too!  I’ve heard from multiple sources that the boat was a hit. 

 

The staff from Eldorada Grill had fun hanging out at the orchard for a work outing.  (Notice Capri and Pip tagged along)

Everyone liked to share delicious pie pictures made using our baker’s mix – above is Kaitlin Quick’s mini apple pies.

Elizabeth P’s apple pie is making my mouth water!

Many photographers utilized our beautiful orchard as a backdrop to their photo sessions.  I don’t think these kiddo’s minded Spiff the cat photo bombing their shoot there.  Great shot by Maggie Augusta Photography. 

The orchard is a perfect place to let your kiddo’s run and just be kids!  Fawn B’s kids where definitely getting some energy out this day!

I’m pretty sure that it was a tie between boat pictures and pictures by our new fence.  Check out Samantha R’s cuties!

And of course … the kittens were a huge hit!  I know that Hillary L’s daughters adore the cats and eat their apples faster so they can come and visit the kittens more often.

We have six friendly goats at the orchard that got a lot of attention and ate a lot of apple cores.  I’m loving this photo from Kristin G.

Students from Lodi High School had a fun time visiting the orchard in the late fall.

One of my favorite memories from the orchard was when adorable triplet boys visited … I would guess they were about 1.5ish.  Their mom had a bag of apples in the wagon with them and as she check out one of the little guys leaned over and took a bite of an apple right through the bag!  He just couldn’t wait!

We have so many customers that make doing what we do worth it.  It’s hard to express in words what I mean but I just want you to all know that we (I) appreciate you and your support!

So – what do we do when apple season is over?  Well – we get to see these three lovely ladies again (photo by Karmen Lindner Photography).  I know the girls’ are all looking to have more time with us.  We’re so excited that Mercedi and Capri qualified for the Level 3 state gymnastics meet.  On December 5th from 9-11:30 they’ll be competing at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison!  We couldn’t be more proud.

Diane and I (Kim) will be back into our quilting world.  If you want to keep up-to-date on my creations be sure to follow along on my blog, Persimon Dreams and/or instagram account. 

Jared is back working full time at his ‘real’ job at Burse Surveying and Engineering.  He is a Registered Land Surveyor and works in Madison during the day and does orchard things at night and on the weekends.

Frank will be around working on things that need to be done at the orchard – pruning the trees, fixing things that are broken, and just overall care of the orchard. 

With that – thank you so much for all your enthusiasm and support of our little orchard and our little dream.  We appreciate you.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Hello All! I almost didn't get down here to write tonight...I'm exhausted (I think it's from my allergies because I actually sort of got to sleep in today...) and Capri just wanted to play and play. Finally she rubbed her eyes and I put her to bed.

It was a good weekend at the apple store. We've had many people come by excited about fresh apples. One couple stopped in who had never been at the orchard before and are now addicted to our caramel apples...doesn't take too much, just one bite. I was also able to make some more really fun flower hats and I have created some pretty neat button jewelry you'll have to make sure to check out.

Diane will have to write a little about the fun they all had with the calves this weekend. I'll only say that Jared's moving quite a bit slower than usual...

I got a bit of a break this afternoon and escaped to a baby shower for a few hours. A friend of mine is going to be having a baby boy at the beginning of October...very excited for her and her husband! They served all 'mini' food so I brought what I considered 'mini' caramel apples...they actually werent' so mini looking when they weren't next to our gi-normous regular caramel apples...oh well, I tried. Pretty sure the guests will still like them (they were going home favors so I haven't heard the verdict yet...)

Grandma and Capri ran the store while Grandpa, Pappa and Cedi picked apples. The arrangement seemed to work out pretty well. We had a partial Lapacek Family reunion this afternoon. Great Grandma and Grandpa Lapacek were there as well as one of Frank's brothers', Dave, and his wife Peggy. It's always nice when family stops by for a visit since we don't have very much time to do too much visiting ourselves during the season.

When we got home, I played around with a two person apple crisp recipe...Jared liked it...I think it still needs a little bit of work. I'll have it down sooner than later and then I'll be sure to share it with you all. I'm trying to make it so it works perfect in our baked apple dish and so that it's microwaveably simple.

Oh, I do have to give a shout out to my cousin's wife, Carrie, who just delivered a 10 lb 1 oz (WOW!) baby girl on Friday, Charlotte Marie. Both mom and baby are healthy! Congratulations Josh, Carrie and Jackson on your new addition!

That's all for tonight! Hope to see more of you in the upcoming days!