Apple Picking

October 7, 2010

I had been thinking of visiting a “pick your own” apple orchard for a long time. A little research online convinced me that Stribling Apple Orchard would be the best choice. They had apples, farm animals, a country store and pumpkins, all points of interest to Kaley and Connor. The farm itself is a historic site, the buildings being originally constructed in the 1700’s. The first lease of this property was granted to William Marshall, uncle of Chief Justice John Marshall, in 1765. I found the history fascinating. You can read more about it at History of Stribling Orchard














It took us one hour to drive from Woodbridge to Markham, VA just off of I-66 where the orchard is located. When we arrived the farm workers were dumping buckets of fallen apples into the animal yards to lure them from the barn. Kaley and Connor were very excited to see the huge momma pig, cows, sheep, horses and donkeys. One friendly donkey stood near the fence and let them pet his side.

Our friends Kirstin and Charles Henry Falk were delayed exiting the DC area and so they arrive about an hour after we did. I took my time making sure the kids had a potty break and were thoroughly covered with sunscreen. We ate an early lunch and bought some apple butter. Kaley kept asking me “Can we pick apples now???” When Kirstin and Charles Henry, arrived Kaley could hardly hold herself back. She ran around dragging the plastic apple bag, begging to get started picking.


It seemed nuts to push the double stroller through the orchard grass, especially given that it was quite hilly. However, I finally decided it might be necessary to have the stroller along for transporting apples and children.


The farm gave us an apple picking tool on a long pole but as it turned out we didn’t need it because there were so many apples close to the ground.











Connor spent the whole event with an apple in each hand taking alternating bites from each. I tried desperately to clean the apples before he munched down on them, but after taking a few bites he would add his apples to the bag and pick two more. At the end of the day I had fun sorting out the apples that had bites taken from them.


I tried to give Kaley a little lesson in choosing the ripest and hopefully sweetest apples to pick but it really boiled down to the ones that she saw first and could reach. It didn’t take long to have 8 lbs of apples and I tried to slow her picking frenzy. I knew that there was no way we would be able to use any more. She would have kept on picking all day long.

The only nuisance to our day was the insects. Because of all the apples that had fallen to the ground there were many bees, yellow jackets and other insects buzzing around as the kids tripped over the apples. Thankfully no one was stung.



So with 8.5 lb of fresh picked red delicious apples - and what I hoped would be some good pictures - I headed home. Kaley fell asleep in the van immediately but Connor stayed awake the whole way. In fact, he never did take a nap that day. He must have been on an apple-sugar high.