This past weekend, we attempted to go apple picking in Oak Glen...and I do mean attempted! Oak Glen is located just east of Redlands and is known for its small town appeal. It is filled with family-run orchards, family-run restaurants, family-run specialty shops...well, you get the idea! So i had great plans for the weekend: go to one of the farms for U-Pick apples, maybe do a little cider pressing, check out one of the animal farms, and go for a hayride. But I knew I was in trouble when I started checking out the websites of the different orchards, and most of them said that they were not having apple picking this year due to a late spring frost this year. Who knew? So I called around to some of the orchards and only ONE was still having apple picking. One! How is that possible? It was only the first weekend in October? Aren't we in the height of apple season? Well, not only was this the only orchard with picking, this was their final weekend of picking. Despite my gut telling me otherwise, we headed out there on Saturday morning. The kids super excited to pick apples and have a day of farm fun. We finally got there (it felt like it took forever!) and as we drove into town, I suddenly had the feeling everyone in Southern California had heard it was the final weekend of apple picking and had headed out to Oak Glen. It was packed!
Once we found parking and headed into the orchard we paid $12.50/bag (one for each kid of course...translation: expensive!) and were off to find ourselves some delicious apples. So here is where it became a problem that all of Los Angeles was in Oak Glen. THERE WERE NO APPLES LEFT! Seriously! The only things left on the trees were over ripe or rotten apples. It was such a disappointment! But my kids (who are only 3) were there to pick apples! They didn't care they weren't the prettiest apples; they just wanted a full bag! So I realized that I needed to just let my frustration go and let them pick whatever they wanted to pick (within reason of course!). These didn't need to be the best apples we ever had. This was about the process. They loved being out there, looking for the best apples they could find (hard to do out there!) But the point is, they had fun. Will we be eating any of the $25 in apples we bought? Probably not. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
You are probably asking yourself, now where can I go to pick good apples? Last year we headed up to Solvang to a farm called Apple Lane Farm. It is a family run orchard with hundreds of trees filled with every type of apple you can imagine. I haven't been back this year but plan to go. I think out of principle I need to get some apples worthy of a good pie! I called the farm and they stated they are open daily from 10:00 to 5:00. This is a great 1/2 day trip or you could make a day of it by going into town. They haven't updates their website for this year but here is their info in case you want to check it out:Apple Lane Farm
www.applelanesolvang.com
805-688-5481
