This is not the first time I’ve made applesauce out of Wolf River apples … it’s just the first time I’ve made time to write up the analysis – whoops! 

Anyway – I’m feeling much more determined to get some of these mid-season apples cooked into applesauce and analyzed for you all!

Wolf River … too big and soft to even put through the apple peeler/corer/slicer so I just cut it into chunks.

On a complete side note – it’s really interesting that the apple flesh started to brown pretty much as soon as it was exposed to air.

I cooked these babies up just like all the rest and it turned into applesauce a few hours later:

I have to say … not my favorite.  It was a sour, dry, almost paste-like texture for applesauce. I think one mixed in with others would create depth (maybe 2 or 3 if the batch is big enough) but I would never use these alone to make applesauce again.  Definitely not a high star rating in the applesauce department for my taste buds.

Happy Saturday morning everyone!  At this point it looks like we’re going to avoid more rain today – whew!  With all the rain we’ve had I do have to warn you – the mosquitoes are BAD! Please dress appropriately if you want to go for a walk through the orchard, pick a pumpkin and/or play on the playground.  Long pants and long sleeves are always a good idea and if you are cool with it – bug spray.

So let’s chat about something serious.  Our honeycrisp apples are selling out – quickly. They were definitely significantly damaged by the frost that hit our orchard in May and its evident as we sort them.  If you want one last bag of honeycrisp before the season is up … come visit us ASAP!

What are you going to do if you get the shop and the honeycrisp are already gone – please – try some other apples!  There are some really good ones ready too!

Here’s the list I recommend trying out before you just decide you’re all done with apples until the 2017 honeycrisp crop:

Melrose – Jared is loving these this year! They are juicy and crunchy with great flavor.  The favorite thing I’ve ready about this apple comes from Adam’s Apple Blog

“If you like sweet and simple, but Honeycrisp is a sugar lump too far, this [melrose] might be your apple.”

(Complete Sidenote:  Have you visited Adam’s Apple blog?  It’s really interesting if you want more insight on TONS of different apple varieties.)

Jonagold – the jonagold is another great one to try after the honeycrisp.  It’s got a great flavor and texture!  Great for eating and cooking – a win/win!

Snow Sweet – WOW!  This is one delicious apple!  It’s not really like the honeycrisp but it’s so good all on it’s own with a unique flavor that we’ve found that pretty much everyone who tries them buys a bag … a big bag!  I have a feeling this apple, once known more, will exceed the demand of the honeycrisp some day.

Alright – if you’re a person that thinks the honeycrisp is a fine apple but not necessarily your first choice … what do we have to offer you?

We’re not quite sure what caused it but the apples are exceptionally good tasting this year!  Our apples are always good … but this year they are just exceeding all of our expectations.  If you like a sweeter apple – we have the fireside, gala, fuji, honeygold, and tolman sweet.  (I would also put the snow sweet in this category but since I’ve already mentioned it.).

Want something that’s sweet and tart – try our hazen, sno, spartan, rebella (a great sauce apple too!), shizuka, arlet, jonathan, crimson gold and smoothee. 

Let’s chat a little bit more about the smoothee apple. The smoothee – we had a school tour on Wednesday morning of this past week … do you remember what the weather was like?  Yup – it was storming – hard!  Luckily, it was a group of 10 kids and we were able to improvise and they still had a fantastic time at the orchard.  And can I just give a little shout out to the 4K students at St. John’s from Pardeeville – what an amazingly well behaved group!  Anyway – back to my point – part of our improvised plan was to let the kids taste test three different apples under the lean, dry from the rain.  They sampled the macintosh, smoothee, and honeycrisp.  Afterwards we asked them there favorites and I would say half chose the smoothee over the honeycrisp! If you are a fan of the golden delicious – this is definitely an apple you want to try.

Are you more of a fan of a tart apple?  No worries!  We have the varieties for you too!  Give the crimson crisp, Bonnie’s Best, haralson, and empire a try.  The Macintosh and Cortland are still in there tart/crisp phase of there life so if you like them for eating – it’s still time!

And with that I think I’ve covered all the apples in the shop … We have some great pumpkin patches this year so I hope you keep that in mind as you’re collecting pumpkins. There is also quite a variety of winter squash, pie pumpkins, and decorative fall items from gourds to Indian corn to adorably tiny pumpkins.

What else is happening in our neighborhood?

This weekend is the official start of the season at Creek Bed Country Farmacy!  This fantastic corn maze and outdoor play area is located just about 3 miles from our place … a perfect opportunity to spend your day enjoying the non-rainy day in the country!

Creek Bed Country Farmacy will have the Soggy Prairie Boys performing 1-3 to celebrate the official start.  Sounds like a great time to me!

A little interesting fact … my husband, Jared, is not only a great farmer but he’s also a land surveyor at Burse Surveying & Engineering.  Every spring Julie from the Farmacy sends Jared the plan for the maze.  He programs it into CAD so once the corn has grown a bit he can go in and use his total station to cut out the design.  It’s a great partnership between farms!  This years theme is “Country Barn Dance”!

September 24th Events nearby:

Brew-B-Que in Lodi

Heritage Fest in Windsor

And with that – you have your weekend forecast!  I hope the orchard is in your plans!

PS!  Have you gotten our new app yet? It’s called “Apple Love” and it’s meant to be a companion to you on your visit or before you visit to get you more informed about all the apples we have.  Each morning I will update what apples are “In Season” (in the shop now), “See you Next Year” (done for the 2016 season), and “Coming Soon” (apples we have to pick).  If we sell out of apples during the day I won’t be able to update the app until the morning. 

Okay – truth time.  The “Bella” apples real name is “Rebella” but I just think it’s the worst name ever so I’ve decided to call it a Bella apple.

I realized that there are bunch of mid-season apples that I haven’t done my “Saucesational” analysis on yet – time to get too it!

I peeled/cored/sliced the Bella apples and put them in my little crock pot to see how it worked.

 I’m happy to say that this apple makes a great sauce.  It has a great texture that’s a bit chunky but not hard.

The flavor is fabulous as well!  It’s almost a tangy flavor … lots of depth with a little sweet and a hint of tart.  Definitely an apple I would use again (or be happy to mix in with others) to make a delicious sauce!

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!