The orchards stretch out behind us!
Let's go apple picking this weekend”!”said Annika. “Jetta Farms is a great place to go to and they have 23 varieties of apples to pick.
So we piled into the huge Pilot Andy has especially bought to ferry a crowd of family members.
Seven of us fitted perfectly well into it and were off after lathering ourselves with sunscreen and bug spray. The bug bites are not funny and rather than suffer I quietly listen to my Doc son and DIL to spray on the bug repellent.
The apple trees are just 8 years old!
Off we went on the 1 ½ hour drive to Hendersonville with the winding roads once we were climbing in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Jetta Mountain Farm grows apples, peaches, blue and black berries, & more in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. But as we drove in we were shocked to see the number of visitors and cars at the venue. Getting a parking space for these huge American cars is tough. But being a 400 acre farm we quickly found a spot to park.
Inside we picked up baskets to pick our blueberries, blackberries and apples in. One has to pay for each basket so we went armed with 4 baskets for us. Not cheap judging by Indian conversion rates!
The bushes were a little while away from the large club house with tables and food to be bought. We wanted to pick fruit rather than eat first. I was sure I would fill my stomach with fruit as we were allowed to eat as much as we wanted. But we could take only what fitted in our baskets home. Can't imagine such honesty in India.
We waited in a que till a wagon rolled up with a typical hill-billy long bearded guy driving it to our destination. They had a large number of hired help which is quite strange for the US guiding us and making sure we were helped to find what we wanted.
The black berry bushes were all planted to one side with the bushes very professionally tied upwards with stakes for us pickers to get at easily. At first we felt –”Ooh! There are no berries to pick, they have all been picked by others who came in early.”But after searching in the lower rows we got enough to eat as well as to pick and fill our two baskets.
The blueberry bushes were easy to pick from as not many people liked blueberries.We had such a good time picking them and stuffing our faces at the same time. They are tiny and blue and delicious! To our luck there were lots of fruit unlike the blackberries and so we had a great time filling our baskets with them. Of course after the black berries most of the gang headed for the main area to order food and drink.
The bushes were laid out professionally and landscaped.
The apples were close to the black berry bushes and so we collected apples on our way out. Only the Gala and the Honey Crisp were ripe and ready for picking. All the other trees were cordoned off with board sayings “Do Not pick – unripe! Which made complete sense to us Mango and chickoo farmers back home in India.
Hundreds of black berries all getting ripe in the sun
It was hot and sticky by the time we headed back in a wagon. Many fellow wagon riders had carried flower bouquets which they had picked. There was no way I was going to do that as the flowers were zinnias and Cosmos. Not my favourite choice of flower.
Apple Cider donuts were popular and were on sale everywhere. Sadly being diabetic I cannot touch any of the sweet stuff including the cider. But then the hot dogs and pulled pork are in plenty and I love the sweet potato chips and fried okra (lady finger) to go with it or the sweet kale salad.
We headed home, hot and tired and ready for a nap before we headed out for dinner to the neighbours.
