An Apple a Day

I was inspired to go pick fresh local produce by a friend and so I decided to take the girls on Monday on my day off. I thought they would enjoy it and we would get some yummy fresh fruit that I could make different things out of for the winter.
We drove out to Winchester - about an hour and 50 minutes to go to Marker Miller Orchard since they had the fruits that I was looking for. My goal was to pick peaches, blackberries and apples.Jasmine was super excited when we got there and I was happy to see that the trees were low to the ground so that Jasmine could very easily get the fruit off of the trees. Even Ava picked some fruit on her own. I would highly recommend this orchard for picking.We picked apples first and Ava seemed happy and curious about what was going on and she had fun playing with the apples and even tried to put one into her mouth. Jasmine filled much of the half bushel bag that we got on her own. She was fast!
We loaded the apples and Ava into the wagon and went off to find the peaches, which were on the other side of the orchard so it was a bit of a hike. It was hot and the sun was beating down on us so by the time we reached the peach orchard, Ava had had enough and began her tantrum to let us know she was through.
I left her in the wagon and Jasmine and I picked the peaches. Jasmine was so well behaved and worried over her sister but I told her not to worry, Ava was going to scream no matter what we did. Then Ava began to take it out on the fruit, thrashing her little arms towards our beautiful bags filled with apples and peaches. I had to try and stop her but she remained hysterical.Lastly, we picked blackberries while Ava screamed and eventually made herself throw up a couple of times. We filled almost 2 quarts of blackberries which was a challenge because the vines had been picked through but I had a strong desire to make blackberry jam so we kept hunting.Once we went back to the market, and we were inside, Ava calmed down. Seems she didn't like being in the sun and she was quite pleasant after that. We left Marker Miller Orchards with a half bushel of Empire apples, 2 peck bags of peaches, 2 quarts of blackberries, 6 ears of fresh corn, 1 gallon of Cherry Apple Cider, 1 gallon of Apple Cider, a bag full of Squash and Zucchini and a very tired Ava. It was a productive afternoon!