Turner, Maine, U.S.A. – When we think about autumn, pumpkins, changing colors, pie and apple picking immediately come to mind.
Because what is more typical for a New England fall season than apple picking?
Probably nothing.
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Well, that’s what we did – on a beautiful sunny Friday fall day at a local orchard.
There is probably nothing better for calming your mind and reconnecting with nature than this traditional fall ritual – which not only is able to give you apples for apple pie or applesauce, but also a sense of community while picking apples with friends or family.
When we arrived, we were overwhelmed by the huge assortment of apples.
From Zestar to McIntosh, the options were plentiful.
We especially loved the Zestar apples, an apple cultivar introduced by the University of Minnesota in the 1990s, according to the university itself. We were especially impressed by its sweet, flavorful taste and redness.
As we later learned while searching random types of apple names on the university’s website, Zestar apples are most famous for their adaptability to cold climates and suitability for baking and cooking.
Just thinking of apple pie was reason enough to pick several of them.
Remarkably, at the orchard, the apple trees weren’t as tall as you might expect compared to the average apple tree growing in your home garden.
Growing on an orchard made for picking by different people without using a ladder, these trees were actually quite small, so people of all ages and sizes could access the branches and try them.
While eating our way through the many varieties in the orchard – these apples weren’t going to taste themselves – we made faces when we bit into a tart fruit or enjoyed the naturally sweet and satisfying sugary taste of others.
The sour taste of the Cortlands especially surprised us.
To make up for that unpleasant shock, we got some delectable seasonal donuts afterwards – our first time trying pumpkin or apple cider donuts. It was just one more addition to our classic New England fall day.
Lina Marie Schulenkorf is a Senior Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Dresden, Germany. She collaborated on this story.
Carlos Fra-Nero is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Lewiston, Maine. He collaborated on this story.
