I really try hard not to double post but I just had to today.

Some parents told a young girl that she could have any pumpkin she could lift into the wagon and get to the car…she managed to get an EIGHTY-ONE POUND Pumpkin! All I can say is “Nice Work.”

This is the view you will see when you first pull into Lapacek’s Orchard. We are going for a cozy, rustic farm setting. Not only will you be able to find a wide selection of delicious apples, but you will also be able to purchase the perfect decor for this autumn. A HUGE selection of various pumpkins are available. You can either pick your own from our patch or choose your favorite from the ones decorating the yard. Remember, at Lapacek’s Orchard, if it’s not breathing it’s probably for sale. Beautiful mums in many different colors are displayed in the yard are all for your choosing as well. These will continue to be beautiful year after year if you plant them properly…make sure to ask Diane for some tips! Who loves SQUASH?! We have TONS of squash! Butternut, buttercup, delicata, acorn, mooregold, hearts of gold, spaghetti squash, Hubbard, carnival, and MORE! At this time we have boxes of butternut and acorn available. Don’t forget you can bake up your squash and freeze it to enjoy for the rest of the year! (yes, that’s a chicken in the background of this picture…they like to wander our little farm.) Another chicken hanging out.MORE SQUASH! Yum! Pie Pumpkins! Pie Pumpkins! Pie Pumpkins! Get your pie pumpkins!

Great for baking pie, adding flavor to soups and you could even carve them if you are looking for a smaller pumpkin.

We also have a beautiful selection of gourds and mini pumpkins scattered throughout our yard. They add the perfect touch to create that autumn feel at your house. AND if they dry properly (which is not guaranteed) you can sometimes have maraca's! I also have a limited quantity of adorable, whimsical pumpkin stands available for sale. In this picture you can see one that I decided to use a butternut squash for the head! Looks great either way and these will last for YEARS (they’re metal).

Thanks for stopping! See you again soon!

I want to start this post out by saying that I’m not trying to be condescending with this post…just trying to make things easier on you. We tend to get crazy busy on the weekend and I am hoping this will clarify a few things for everyone before their visit. We do our best to make your experience fun and fabulous so we’ve developed a pumpkin picking/weighing/paying process to make everyone’s life easier. It’s fairly self explanatory but I thought it would be fun to create a picture ‘how to’ for you before you head out to the orchard. If you have questions, please do not be afraid to ask…we’re more than happy to help.

Step 1: Head up to ‘the Patch’ to find the perfect pumpkin… (make sure it doesn’t have a child’s name on it before you choose that one…those are our cousins’ pumpkins…) or Step 1: Chose a pre-picked pumpkin from the display around the farm. Step 2: Haul your pumpkin to the scale (located just to the left of the entrance to the apple shop). Feel free to use one of the wagons about the orchard or even bring your own. Step 3: Put your pumpkin on the scale to weigh it. Step 4: See what it weighs. Step 5: Look at the Pumpkin Slip next to the scale and determine which price category your pumpkin is in.

Step 6: Mark the box that matches your pumpkin. You can continue to do this for all the pumpkins you choose.

Step 7: Put the pumpkins in your vehicle and just bring the slip of paper to us at the registry. We trust you…we don’t need to see your pumpkin…unless you’re really excited about your choice and then of course I would love to see it.

Hope you have fun picking pumpkins at the orchard!

Also, lots of winter squash is starting to role in! Don’t wait too long to get your favorites an stock up for the upcoming year!

We put the first row down, then tried to decide how close we could put the next one without pulling the first row of plastic back up. It took a little playing, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Well, I have one more market to go to in Deforest and two in Sun Prairie. If anyone is thinking about buying bushels to make sauce or freeze apples please call us SOON and I will deliver them to the markets for you. Also, don't forget that cider freezes wonderfully!



I know everyone will be sad when the markets are done for the year but don't hesitate to take a ride up to our store. We will be open until at least Thanksgiving. Depending on how many apples we have left at that point we may remain open a bit longer...we'll have to see and we'll be sure to keep you posted.



I'm happy to say that we have additional schools that we are providing apples to this fall for the kids' lunches. Not only do we still provide them to Waunakee, Poynette and Rio schools, but Fall River and Middleton schools have also added us onto there lunch menu. Reports have been great that the students continue to enjoy there fresh, locally grown apples! We will continue to provide these schools with apples until the end of the semester.



The guys are still picking apples for us. They've been working on Red Delicious, Cameo (yum!), Jonagold, Empire, Idared, Jonathons, and probably a few others that I'm forgetting. We're thinking that picking will be done at the end of the week but our cooler is stocked up with lots of apples for your enjoyment. We still have 16 varieties of apples for you to choose from.



The pick your own pumpkin patch has been quite a hit! Lots of families are stopping to go for a nice walk on our farm to get to the patch.



On Saturday, my sitter, Kelsey, took my girls to a farm festival and below is an adorable picture of Cedi right after she bobbed for apples!

It has been a beautiful weekend at the orchard! I attended the Sun Prairie Farmer's Market yesterday morning and really enjoyed the weather--almost summer-like, with a touch of fall. The forecast for today looks like it's going to be even nicer! Perfect day for a visit, perhaps...

We had LOTS and LOTS of visitors yesterday. Everyone called me on Friday to see if they could come. First to show up were my mom, dad, Aunt Betty, cousin Trish and her daughter, Lily. The women dropped my dad off at the orchard to pick apples while they made an annual trip to the Madison Farmer's Market. My mom bought me some yummy cheese that you fry up and it's delicious...thanks mom! Then my brother, Brian, and his girlfriend, Sarah, joined us just after noon. They spent some time weighing pumpkins for people and hauling pumpkins back from the patch on the gator. After things started to slow down they headed over to our orchard to get some picking experience of there own. My friend Kaitra (Capri's godmother) showed up at the house just before 6. She has been really busy this fall and it's her first trip to the orchard this season. Kaitra is always a big help with the girls (they absolutely love it when she comes!)and around the store (she has some experience in retail...aka Port Apothecary). It always calms down some of the craziness of this time of year when we have friends and family coming to lend a hand.

Jared and I have been up for awhile getting some more caramel apples made for today. They went over quite well yesterday. And don't worry, we made some more limited editions for everyone to enjoy!

Hope to see you today or soon!

Well, if the meteorologist's prove to be correct, we should have a beautiful weekend ahead of us! A perfect time to visit the orchard to feed the cows, play in the sunflower field, scavenge for cute little kitties, laugh out our crazy emus, hike up the hill to pick the perfect pumpkin, or just lounge around in our play yard area. We are going to be busy, busy, busy making caramel apples for some large orders this weekend and pressing some more fresh cider.

I had a couple today that stopped by because our orchard was mentioned in the DeForest Tribune as being the best place for apple cider (unpasturized) in the area. The gentleman was so anxious to see if it was true that I gave him a cup and he tried it right then and there...we passed! It's so nice to be surprised by these articles and to realize how much the community enjoys our little place. We've worked hard in the last few years to make it what it's become today and hope to continue growing it into a place your families will remember visiting for years to come.

As always, feedback is always welcome. We love hearing from you about either what you LOVED or what you wish we had available. Next time you stop in make sure to ask me for a survey to fill out so we can improve our store. I try to hand them out but sometimes it just slips my mind. Well, I'm going to try to make a little jewelry before I start labeling the apples!

See you this weekend! (I hope!)

I always jokingly brag that I am the best salesperson in the family. I may have prooved that true the other day when I litterally sold the sweatshirt that I was wearing. A fairly regular customer came in and was checking out all the hand-dye hooded sweatshirts we have for sale. She kept commenting on how much she liked the one I was wearing, then would look at the others, comment again. Finally, I told her that the one that I was wearing was for sale...I had just gotten cold the other day, had no sweatshirt, and had taken it down and put it on. Like that, a sale was made! When you come into our store make sure to look up when entering the back room. We have quite a selection of hand-dyed hooded sweatshirts hanging near the cieling.

I grudgingly got out of my warm bed early this morning to get suited up for the Sun Prairie Farmer's Market. I put on many layers...including my long underwear and had Jared heat me up some hot cider for the thermos. It was quite chilly when I left. Once I got to the market and started to set up I warmed up quickly. I was able to strip off a few layers to cool off a bit. I have a hard time keeping track of the time at the market in the morning, but it wasn't too long before it really became nice and I was just down to a long sleeve tee under a regular t-shirt. It really changed into a beautiful day quickly. I picked up some delicious shrimp for my in-laws from the seafood guy, Wally, and I picked up some scallops for myself. I am going to try one more time to cook them properly. I absolutely LOVE scallops when I get them at restaurants but have been unable to replicate them in my own kitchen....we'll see what happens...

Another beautiful day at the orchard. I wasn't there this morning (I was at the Sun Prairie Farmer's Market) but I heard that lots of people decided today was the day to visit the orchard. Surprisingly, the frost did not damage our raspberry crop too badly. There were still pickers out that found some beautiful, tasty berries. Our pumpkin patch also recieved some visitors. We really need to get some better signs up showing how to get there (side note for myself) so don't be afraid to ask us if you want to pick-your-0wn pumpkin. Squash have also been flowing out of the store smoothly. If you are worried that there is too much squash in what you pick out I must tell you, it freezes wonderfully! We will freeze enough (hopefully) that my girls will be able to eat it until we have squash again next year.

Limited Edition 'Mixed Nut' caramel apples have thus far been a hit. We are currently making the second batch of them. I hope you decide to try one out when you stop because they won't be around long!

Take care!

As some of you have noticed I have a box on the counter at the orchard to collect recipes containing; apples, squash, cider, pumpkins, blueberries, raspberries, zucchini, peaches, pears, and plums (anything we grow at the orchard), for our next cookbook. Each month I am holding a drawing. This month's winner is: Roger Dorman, with his recipe for Dried Apple, Apple Pie. He will recieve a gift certificate to $5 off any bag of apples. Be sure to drop your recipe off or email it to me at lapaceksorchard@gmail.com to be entered in next months drawing!

Thanks!

We just pressed another fresh batch of apple cider last night. Our friend Jay and his daughter, Taylor, were kind enough to lend us a hand. We're at the peak of our cider season so we kept busy last night. We also had a visit from Pat Fischbeck from the Speckled Hen Inn, www.SpeckledHenInn.com, who took pictures of the cider making process. They should be posted on her website in the next couple of days.

My babysitter's daughter had a baby boy late Tuesday night...Trexton Neil, 8lbs 30z, mom and baby are doing fine. (Congratulations Jeff & Nicole!) She needed a day off to be with her daughter and grandson (understandably so) so, my mom is here for a few days to watch the girls. Cedi is very excited to see Grandma Van. I'm sure Capri is too, but she's a bit too little to talk.

If anybody reading this gets the Poynette Press be sure to check out this weeks Opion article, A Black Sheep. Amber Tyler is kind enough to write her entire editorial about how wonderful Lapacek's Caramel Apples are. If you haven't tried them I strongly recommend that you do. You can now buy them not only at our store and the farmer's markets we attend (DeForest, Waunakee, and Sun Prairie) but at Treinen's Farm (http://www.treinenfarm.com/) near Lodi, WI. They have an AMAZING corn maze you should definately take your family to for a fun fall adventure!

We have our last two groups of the season today. Should be a nice day for it...maybe a little chilly, but hey, it's fall!

Have a wonderful day and weekend! Don't forget to stop by the orchard for your apples, cider, caramel apples, squash and pumpkins!

Yes! We are opening up our patch for pick your own pumpkins starting today/this weekend! My inlaws planted a beautiful patch! It's in a new location this year so be sure to stop in the store to ask how to find it. There's a bit of walking involved so if you planned to get a lot of pumpkin try to bring a wagon or carrying device. We have a few wagons, but if things get busy they will be limited!

Also, the raspberries are still going strong. We had multiple people over yesterday to pick and they were having a wonderful time! We had a lady come in that never picked raspberries before, was a little hesitant to even try, but when she came in with her brimming full quart of raspberries had a huge smile on her face.

See you at the orchard soon!

It was an amazing weekend at the orchard! We had the most beautiful weather and lots of fun people and families visiting us. On Saturday morning I attended the Sun Prairie Farmer's Market. It was my first week there with cider and I'm pretty sure people were happy about that. If you ever decide to head over there on a Saturday morning be sure to not only get some apples from me, but try out the scones from Market Street Bakery...they are AMAZING (there apple pies and cheese bread are wonderful too)!

I spent the afternoon at the orchard helping out customers. Kelsey watched the girls for us, thank goodness. We're just so busy it's hard to keep an eye on both of them. Frank helped an old friend of his and got him hooked on mac's. As a treat, he sent him home with a sample Honeycrisp. I would say about 20 to 30 minutes later the gentleman was back...we had him hooked. I believe his exact words were, "It is better than steak!".

I can't remember if it was Saturday or Sunday, but we also had a mom and a daughter (I believe) that made me laugh...they had printed out our webpage and had done research before they came on the apples they wanted to try! I love a prepared person. It is so much like something that I would do! Thanks for stopping if you're reading this...it was fun!

Frank also picked the girls pumpkins on Saturday night. It was so adorable! He was so proud of them. He had to carry them both in and make sure to set them up for there pictures. So cute! Earlier, when the pumpkins were still green they had carved the girls' names into the pumpkins. As they grew that names turned scar-like. They're super neat. Be sure to look at them when you come into the store (window sill to your left as you walk in).

People went crazy with the raspberry picking this weekend! The berries were plentiful and everyone had a good time. Stop by tomorrow or later this week to pick your own fresh raspberries!

Cedi's awake, have to end my blogging for this morning. Have a good week everyone!

From Blog

From Blog

Well, we have really started to get into our tour group season! We had two tours go through this morning. Diane leads the tours but it seemed like everyone was enjoying it. We have a rather large group coming at 9 tomorrow morning so I have to lead the orchard portion of the tour. I don't mind doing it since I love talking but I'm much better at the one-on-one stuff :)

Diane also put up a really neat corn shock tunnel for the kids to play in. She added some fun things to it like broom corn and huge sunflowers. I think it turned out very well. Frank and Diane have also been picking pumpkins, gourds and squash whenever they have a minute. It's really starting to look like fall around the orchard! Frank picked up a bunch of beautiful mums again at the auction this week. Stop by and decorate your garden/yard!

After we got the girls to bed, Jared and I made another batch of caramel apples...we're really starting to get the hang of things!

Hello All! I'm taking a quick breather to update you on the lastest happenings in the orchard! Jared got today off from work and picked apples all day...I looked outside and the trailer is really full! I came with him in the morning to help pick and we started on the Gala's. They're absolutely beautiful and delicious! Then we decided to see how the Honeycrisp were doing...well, they are DONE, READY, JUICY, DELICIOUS, and we picked them. They are currently for sale on the shelves of our store.

After I finished picking some apples I went to the store to help Diane sort and run the store. Our neighbors were busy getting things out for our upcoming garage sale (starting tomorrow and running through Saturday). We stayed fairly busy throughout the afternoon. Frank headed out to the Waunakee market and we got the first of our pumpkins out. It's really starting to look like fall at the orchard!

Well, I have a few minutes to grab a bite to eat! Hope to see you soon!