Lyman Farms CT 2011
by furtech
It is already Saturday and I have yet to register for the convention. We arrived late on Thursday and on Friday first-thing I dashed off to visit NFT (more on that later).
Sales has been so-so for Tracy in the dealer's room on Friday, so she was up with the idea of our "annual" apple picking trek on Saturday (before the dealer's room opened but we might be late returning).
Last year Tracy's research into pick-your-own places local to the convention turned up "Lyman Orchards". I'm not sure how they rate against other places, but they have a huge set of orchards and many varieties of apple. Their store has *great* sandwiches and deli food, as well as a slightly evil bakery (temptation, temptation...). Apple pies...apple cider...candies...I exerted iron-will to leave with just a wrap and a thing of soup.
The apple-picking itself was fantastic! Sneaking over early Saturday (to get back before the dealers room opened) also resulted in us beating the weekend crowds (which we had forgotten about). After several days of rain, the weather on Saturday dawned clear and crisp-- much more like one expects of CT in the fall. For the most part we had the place to ourselves.
Tip: walk WAaaaayyy down the row of trees before you start to pick. Near the road the trees were all but denuded of low-hanging fruit. There were ripe, red apples far too high for the average person to pick. The deeper you got into the row, the lower the ripe fruit got. The branches were so covered with fruit that they seemed unreal: I'm amazed that the branches don't bend or break from the weight.
I renewed my love for Washington Delicious apples: it has been decades since I've gotten a good one in a store and I had hoped to realize my theory that Washington Delicious apples picked off a tree were still pure and good. Success! They were every bit as crunchy and tart-sweet as I'd remembered. Since these were the first row of apples we found, I was soon dragging about six pounds of the things through the rest of the orchard.
Tracy was looking for a specific type of apple: the Red Macoun. Apparently this variety requires very cold winters in order to fruit. I tasted one: amazing. New favorite apple: this fruit has a startlingly white flesh (like, almost unnaturally bright white) with a red blush near the stem and flower of the fruit. The flavor is that perfect blend of tart and sweet that I associate with perfect apples. The texture was even more crisp than the Red Delicious-- almost brittle. Man-- great apple!
One thing that intrigued me was the amount of windfall fruit there was. Piles and piles. I kept wondering if there wasn't -something- that couldn't be done with them, but neither of us could think of anything practical. Possibly fuel...but you'd need to be pretty desperate. Seems like such waste. One thing Tracy realized early: it was dangerous to pick up windfalls: there was a lot of poison ivy growing under some of the trees.
There were also fields of raspberries and pumpkins. I like pumpkins: they bring back very happy memories and seeing them (especially growing in a field) always brings a big smile to my face.
We stopped at the Lyman Orchards store on the way back to the con and got lunch to go. The store is well-worth visiting: they have a nice deli that makes good sandwiches and soups; their bakery is evil-- filled with fantastic baked goods and fresh donuts; there is all manner of apple ciders, pies and apple and fruit related food. As noted above, I managed to reign in my appetite and only walk out with soup and a sandwich.
