Fun Day Away

I did not go to school today. I took a "sick "day because I had a late morning doctor's appointment. For those of you scratching your head right now, let me tell you that this is a legitimate use of "sick" days. For those of you who care, I got a clean bill of health and my doctor said she wished that all her patients took as good care of themselves as I take care of myself! That's that until next year.

After my appointment, I went to a special luncheon at Hurd Orchards, which is about 30 minutes west of Greece on Route 104. My friend, Sherri, told me about these weekly luncheons, hosted by the owners of Hurd Orchards. I went with Gram, Grandma, and Sally. 

Each luncheon is built around a seasonal theme, and this particular luncheon featured "Apples". The mother/daughter owners of Hurd Orchards welcomed us to their apple barn and gave us a brief overview of the farm and talked about the food we would be eating shortly. Plates of food were delivered to us and just the presentation alone had our mouths watering. 

On our lunch plates included the following items: a wedge of chicken pot pie, tomato gratin, a green salad with lemon grass vinaigrette dressing and slices of apples, and a small glass dish of plum/applesauce. It was all delicious. While we were eating, a tray was brought to our table with Sally Lund bread and apple muffins with Thomas Jefferson Crab Apple Jelly and apple butter. After that we were served a flaky pastry with goat cheese and apple chutney inside (I think that's what was inside, I could be wrong). It was all delicious and none of the portions were overwhelming so we could enjoy what we were served and not feel stuffed.

 We then had an opportunity to sample about 5 different kinds of apples. A couple of the

 varieties were "heirloom" varieties, meaning Grandma remembered them!! There were a

 couple of well-known types and one, called Experiment #30, which is a new breed. #30 was developed to be an apple that was naturally resistant to the diseases that NYS apple growers have to worry about. It was a good apple. The meal concluded with a slice of apple pie! So we had a delicious lunch, in a beautiful location and we learned a bit about the apple business. It was a perfect fall day with summer like temperatures, which just added to our enjoyment of this excursion. This last photo was taken inside their market and in addition to selling a wide variety of seasonal fruit, they sell homemade jellys, jams, chutneys, and bakery items - all made on the premises. Hurd Orchards also has a large cut flower business and you could buy both fresh cut and dried flowers. It was all good eye candy!

I'd like to thank all of you who voted for my knitting picture, but I didn't win. The woman who was knitting while para-sailing took home the prize. 

Tomorrow is a professional development day at school which means that the children have a day off and the staff will be in meetings all day. Jim goes to NYC tomorrow with 3 of his J & J teammates to run in the International Corporate Challenge. 

Corey-this is grape pie weekend. Buy the grapes on Saturday, make pie fillings on Sunday!

Hope all is well.