Mission Accomplished

The gratitude continues. Thanks to Phil, lead guitarist for Sack of Yams and fellow apple enthusiast, we got the heads up that our orchard of choice was overrun with Thanksgiving Day pickers. Good for the apple growers, bad for impatient people like me. Unwilling to face the long line ups, we implemented Plan B.

The above photo was taken at William’s Orchards just outside Milton. This tree is laden with Golden Delicious apples, but we also picked Mutsu, McIntosh and Empires. Our bag was full before we got to the Ida Reds. Maybe next year.

Since I showed you a picture of Allison yesterday, here’s an orchard shot of my other sister, Robin. She’s such a hard worker, I don’t want her to feel left out.

Normally, this would be proof enough of our adventures, but fellow foodie and frequent commenter, Cheryl, says she’ll believe it when she sees the pie. Well, Cheryl, here it is.

These are the pies that graced our Thanksgiving dinner table. In the front is tart and intense Concord grape pie. Back left is the classic pumpkin pie, made by my niece. And the apple pie is on the far right. Too perfect for words, right?

Wrong.

We celebrated on Sunday before apple picking. All I had in the house were three huge Honeycrisp apples, so I used them — because you have to have apple pie on Thanksgiving. Notice I didn’t say you have to have good apple pie. While these rock-hard apples are wonderful for munching as is, they are not ideal for pie. By the time the crust is done and the topping is golden, they’re still half cooked. Of course, I learned this the hard way.

Regardless, I’m thankful we got to go apple picking on the warmest, most pleasant day of the fall. I’m thankful Allison carried the 20 pound bag of our harvest bounty so I could take photos. I’m thankful I don’t look like this…

Ah, autumn in Ontario. Even undercooked pie can’t put a damper on this.