Looking for something fun to do on a Sunday afternoon, James & I decided to go apple picking, along with my mother and niece, Gabrielle.
Blake Farms has been in business since 1946 and operates 3 apple orchards and a cider mill. They specialize in an array of the freshest Michigan grown produce, most of which you pick yourself, including U-pick pumpkins and fresh cut Christmas Trees. They're also famous for their freshly pressed apple cider, fresh doughnuts, fudge, jams, jellies, honey and many other tasty treats!!
Here are a couple shots from inside the small market at Blake's Big Apple Orchard.
Some fresh tomatoes, eggplant and garlic! Makes me crave Eggplant Parmesan!
With provided bags in hand, James and I headed out to the apple orchards! The trees were just screaming with apples waiting to be picked! 
We picked many varieties such as McIntosh, Early Fugi, Molly Delicious, Gala, Honey Crisp, Cortlands, etc....
As well as some of the most delicious Bartlett Pears!
Oh my, what to do with all these apples??? All in all, I think James and I picked close to 2 bushels of apples and pears!
Pumpkins were almost ready for picking, but I think they needed time to grow much larger!
After apple picking, it was off to the raspberry patch! Picking the raspberries was a bit of a challenge because the bees were EVERYWHERE! Guess that's a good sign, though! We need the bees!
The raspberries were plump and juicy. Snacking while picking was encouraged! Because there were so many bees, though, we only managed to pick about 2 pints.
The orchard offers tractor pulled hay rides for guests. These are especially popular at night during the Halloween season!
Getting ready for the Halloween season, James has made a new friend!
Setting up a "Haunted" attraction for the kids! Halloween is the best time around here as they offer haunted hay-rides, haunted barn attractions and a scary corn maze!
What a great field trip!! I love going to the orchards this time of year. The smell alone is intoxicating! Thanks for sharing your trip!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a fun day, John. Some of those apples I have never heard of, so it would be interesting to hear what you made with them. Happy baking!
ReplyDeletew0w this is hilarious... I was Googling Blakes because I work there and wanted to get some images for my computer. AAaaaand... I ran across your blog! Needless to say I was totally excited! Especially about the pictures in the store. :D It actually looks good, rofl (I'm excited, because I made most of the signs and did the display for that day, I recognize it!). Well thanks for posting, and sharing all the nice words about Blakes. I'm so glad y'all had a great time, this completely made my day! Stop in and say hi if you're not too far away, because we have some pretty neat end-of-season sales going on!
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alyssa