Apple Pickin' Tips!

Last Friday my best friend and I drove to Ellijay, GA to pick some apples. It was a beautiful day for traveling and the leaves had started to change. Ellijay is about 40 minutes from my house and we left around 9:30 AM. Traffic was a breeze. But here is the catch. If you actually want to enjoy going to Ellijay, take my advice all you stay at home ladies, GO ON A WEEKDAY! Weekends are going to get you stuck in traffic. Also, if you want to enjoy the experience, don't go on the weekend of the apple festival usless you love crowds, traffic, and your husband wanting to turn around as soon as he see's the 2 miles of cars ahead attempting to turn into an orchard.

Our plan was to can...yup...that rhymes.

So we did a little research. Here is some valuable info we discovered before and after going...

1. Determine what apples you want (since different apples are used for making different things) and check online to see when they are in season in that area.
2. If your going to can them in some way, ask for the "drops", "seconds", or "culls". These are super cheap (or even free if you hit the right orchard) and are the not so pretty apples. The ugly applings if you will. But they taste great and you get way more for way less.
   
3. Go on a weekday.
4. Call ahead and make sure that the orchard you are driving to offers "picking" during the weekdays. (We found that the orchards already had the reject apples bagged and ready to sell. We did not have to pick any.)
   
5. If they make fun of your GA Tech sweatshirt...just go to the orchard down the street.
6. If your looking for a very "theme park" like experience at your apple orchard, look for one with a fancy schmancy web site.
7. My friend and I visited about 5 orchards and discovered that the best ones were the ones in little shacks with small orachards behind them. We got everything that the other "big" fancy orchards had at around $1 less per item. And we knew we were helping these small business owners out which I kinda like (especially after the sweatshirt incident).
8. If you are going to an orchard with live music, bring yourself an umbrella because there may not be any shady seats left.

I hope these are helpful! Happy fall adventures!
Apple butter canning...to be continued!