Apple Farm Field Trip

I love field trips. Every time we go somewhere the kids learn so much and so do I. We meet incredible people and have a good time. We have never been to this particular Apple orchard but it was a really great place. On Wednesday we went with our home school group to the Apple Orchard in Penrose. It wasn't that far away. The farmer and his wife own a 5 acre parcel upon which they grow apples, pumpkins, raspberries, grapes, honey and a few other things. They converted their garage into a shop to sell their wares out of and it is the cutest place.

Our groups were divided in half and our half went with the farmer. He talked a little bit about the original founder of Penrose, Spencer Penrose. We rode around in a hayride wagon attached to his tractor. We saw the little apple trees. There are some that are 30+ yrs old and some others that they have planted that are only 5-10 yrs old. Apple trees only produce for so long. The frost unfortunately had a huge negative effect on the apple production leaving only a handful of apples to grow in the orchard. We saw the way that the farm is irrigated. Its really quite simple. There is a dam that runs water into pipes that run under all of penrose and the people hook up their pipes to the system and flood their land. It works although some have a much better irrigation system in place. Our next stop was the pumpkin patch where we learned about the female and male plant, the kids know the difference now and we got to see the pumpkins that are still green. We rode through the rest of the farm and saw his raspberry bushes and grape vines and his honey bee hives (made me sooo nervous since I still don't carry an EpiPen).

We then met the farmers wife who showed us the proper way to pick an apple and how the apple sorter works. All the kids got to line up and work the apple sorter and then they got to keep 3 apples to take with them. there is a spot to dump all the apples and a conveyor belt moves them along. There are two lines and the bad apples get put in one and the good ones go through to the end where they are checked again by the workers on that end. The kids really liked the apple sorter. After this we moved on to the apple press machine. Her again is a spot to dump all the apples and then they get ground up and dumped into this wooden bucket. the wooden bucket then gets moved down the machine under the press. All the kids took a turn at pressing the apples. The juice came out of the wooden bucket and flowed down the machine over the end into whatever receptacle you choose, they had a bowl with a sieve to catch any bigger pieces that made it through.

We all got treated to a doughnut and fresh apple cider. The mom's took a moment to enjoy the serenity and peek at the cute shop. The couple sells fruit and veges, jam, syrup, soap and honey. It is tasteful , cute and heartwarming little place. The couple are so warm, sweet ,very helpful and willing to answer questions. This is their retirement he from the forest service and her from teaching. What they sell pays for the farm and a few other things and they seem to enjoy every minute of it. It was such a great trip.

A little history about the railroad and some awesome pictures.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/f?hawp:0:./temp/~ammem_nT4g:
http://www.florenceandcripplecreek.com/history.html

Some Facts about Spencer and Julie Penrose
http://www.gilpincountynews.com/20070628/spencer_penrose.htm
http://www.cssd11.k12.co.us/BRISTOL/Bristol_Wall/1900/front_1900_penrose.htm

The kids on the back of the hayride wagon

More of the kids just hanging out
The farmer explaining the male and female flower of the pumpkin plant.
The kids listen intently to the farmer
More of the kids on the back of the hayride wagon

The farmer's wife shows us how to pick an apple and why it's done that way.The kids look through a box of apples
The apple sorter
The kids wait to sort apples

Conner inspects an apple for goodness
Quality assurance
The shop

A frozen honeycomb

Colin presses the apples

Kids putting apples into the apple press machine

Austin puts in some apples
Conner takes a turn pressing apples
Colin eating an apple and working the apple press
This is what happens when I ask my boys to smile for a picture. Someone has to make a goofy face.
The kids sit around and chat and so do the mom's


Vanessa