Apple picking season just opened and we've already made 2 stops to the farm near our house. We can pick our own, which the kids always enjoy, but I also like to buy "utility" apples at the farm. It was only a couple of years ago that I found out about utilities. These are slightly bruised or scarred fruit that make them less-than-perfect and are sold at a reduced rate. Always happy to find a bargain, I usually pick up a bag of these apples because they are great to bake with.

On our first trip to the orchard, G. said she wanted to pick apples every day. Why? "Because it is soooo much easier than picking blueberries!"

We can fill up our 1/2 bushel bag of apples in about 15 minutes while it takes several trips and a couple of hours to pick the 22 pounds of blueberries we currently have in our freezer from this year's harvest.

But cooking with apples is a lot more time-consuming than blueberries so every fruit has its drawbacks. Last night I made a deep dish apple pie (I specify deep dish so you know I peeled a lot of apples to make it) and it was gone by breakfast this morning. The rapid disappearance of that pie means this is the year the kids learn how to peel apples!

There are lots of apple orchards in Maine and since the season usually lasts until the end of October, everyone has plenty of time to pick-your-own this fall.

The trees were heavily weighed down at the orchard with all the ripe apples.

I had turned my back for a minute and there was L. trying to climb a tree to get that elusive "perfect one" near the top. With the number of times she's broken her arm, I did not encourage her to climb any more trees.

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