Over this glorious weekend we visited friends in Delmar, Albany. Albany has something of a reputation for being cold, grey and windy. And it was for much of my undergraduate experience at SUNY. But when it's good, it's really fabulous.
There was some soccer, in which the college (or near) kids held nothing back against the intrepid sixth graders and everyone got muddy and sweaty.
Next day for apple picking. We drove up to a pretty orchard and felt lucky that it was easy to find a parking spot. The line for cider donuts was also short so we decided to do the donut/coffee break first, before the line got huge. We bought two dozen hot sugary confections and enjoyed the sunshine on a picnic bench.
Walking up the hill to the apple trees, we finally see the hand written sign telling us there will be no picking today. Due to a long summer and an early frost, the apples were previously rescued by the owners and placed in large crates. The kids reached in to select the reddest, the roundest and the most blemish-free.
They had so much fun selecting that we forgot our mission of the day was to pick.
The apples are really delicious, we couldn't have done better ourselves. I have my eye on a recipe in the October Rachel Ray magazine for caramel covered cupcakes. I'll let you know how it goes!
