Apple picking

Brad, Mary, and I went apple picking today at Barthel Fruit Farm in Mequon. It's a beautiful day -- the temperature is about 75 and it's sunny and no wind -- perfect! It's the beginning of the apple picking season, and they told us at the orchard that the apples are about 10 days behind schedule, but we still had a lot to choose from. We had a terrific time, and we especially enjoyed tasting our apples before picking. We decided that next time we should bring a picnic lunch and have a picnic in the orchard while we pick apples. For today, we got a lot of Cortlands to eat and (huge) Pippins for cooking. (Although Brad and Mary could still eat them as they love tart apples.) We said no thanks to the Macintosh and Golden Yellow. We also bought some Aurora pears, which we tried and which were so tasty. As you can see from the photos, Mary was not only a helpful apple picker, but she was also our driver, driving there and back. She's really getting the hang of it.