Stayman is another new apple at Lapacek’s Orchard.  It’s a crisp, hard, tart apple and is very popular in the state of Virginia.  We heard about it because my sister-in-law lived there for about 10 years and told us how good it was.  After watching customers try a sample, I’m sure many folks will agree with her.  Let’s see how the Stayman apple does when cooked into applesauce!

I peeled, cored and sliced the stayman and put it into my mini slow cooker. 

After just over an hour I had a smooth, tart applesauce.  Definitely flavorful but a bit too tart for my taste.  It would add a perfect element of flavor and texture though mixed with other apples.

We had our very first crop of Keepsake apples at Lapacek’s Orchard this season.  The verdict is in – it’s definitely a good one!  It’s crunchy, hard, juicy and sweet.  While it’s not the prettiest apple – the flavor and texture makes up for the aesthetics. 

The Keepsake apple also happens to be a parent to the Honeycrisp (Keepsake x MN1627)

I had to see how it work out in applesauce to continue my great “Saucesational Analysis” experiment.

So, I peeled, cored and sliced up a few keepsake apples and put them in my min slowcooker.

After just over an hour, I had a chunky, juicy, sweet applesauce.  They cooked very similarly to the honeycrisp (which makes sense) – the apple holds its shape but all the juice comes out and it’s amazing!  Definitely mix this one up well before you eat and enjoy … if you just get a chunk of apple the flavor will be absent as it’s all in the juice at the bottom of the pot.

Last Friday we snuck out to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins for our family.  We have three pumpkin patches for you to go through to find the perfect.

The pictures I’m sharing with you here are just from one of the patches.

There are seriously some gorgeous pumpkins out there.It didn’t take us long to find our perfect pumpkin for carving!

Here’s Cedi’s pumpkin!

It took her some effort to carry it back.

Capri and Pip worked together to find their pumpkins.

And it wasn’t long before Pip had hers …

and Capri had hers …

Pumpkin picking at our orchard is a pretty laid back experience.  You can either bring your own wagon or use one of ours.  You find your favorite pumpkins and bring them back to the lean next to the shop.  We have a “Pumpkin Weight Station” set up there.  You take a sheet that’s right by the scale and fill out how much each of your pumpkin and gourds weigh, put your pumpkins into your car and just bring the sheet into the shop to pay for your pumpkins.

The Hazen apple is another new-er variety at Lapacek’s Orchard.  The hazen is greenish yellow, medium firm, juicy, very sweet flesh; mildly subacidic flavor. It is pleasant for eating, good dessert and cooking apple. 

Let’s test it for applesauce!

I peeled/cored/sliced some hazen apples into my new mini crock pot and let it cook for over an hour.  I stirred it a few times to keep the apples from overcooking on the sides.And before I knew it there was a nice chunky textured applesauce.  The sauce was sweeter with some tang.  It wasn’t my personal favorite … too tangy for me … but my family gobbled it up for dinner that night.  I think it would add some great texture and flavor mixed with other apples.