Hayrides, Apple Picking & Tart Baking - Brooksbury Farm

New England in the Autumn (or fall as it's called in America) is beautiful for many reasons. Well the weather remains great for one, the scenery is magical and you get to do many exciting things in the countryside such as apple-picking and the like.

Here are Allie, Marguerite and Claire C as they do a bit of apple picking.

The venue for today's fun was Brooksby Farm in Massachusetts, just north of Boston.

The excitement at this stage was something else, sure look at the faces on Claire, Marguerite and Allie, they look so excited you'd think it was their birthdays.

What's this? It's a sign advertising an apple-picking Hayride that's what..........












.....and Jude, Marguerite, Allie and Claire are at the front of the queue for the next ride.












But before that folk must buy their pecks (bags) for collecting their apples in. The pecks were sold at this wee hut. A small peck was $7, a medium was $14 and a large bag was $20.

Hold on......there's yer man on the tractor and that can mean only one thing..............







..........it's time for the Hayride........yeee haaaa partners.................haaaaaaaw-diddy!!












Claire, Allie and Marguerite pushed three auld grannies and a couple of kids out of the way to hog those front seats!!!

Guess what size of a bag Jude bought? Aye you're right, a small one. When at the peck shop Marguerite said, 'sure Jude get a bag each', to which Jude replied, 'one bag will do, and a small one at that, I mean just how many bloody apples are ye intending on eating? to which Marguerite mumbled to herself, 'tight git'.

Allie was under orders from her mum to get a big peck and fill it with scrumptious apples. Allie's mum Linda bakes everything from Gingerbread houses (see blog Dec 2010) to................(guess what she was baking today- this is the easiest quiz question ever).......of course it was an apple tart.

Being parked on the Hayride and being taken down to the fields by a tractor reminded Jude of when he were a lad and he used to help with bringing in the straw and hay bales at his granny Clarke's farm in Ballygalget..........ah...they were the days!!!

'Naaiy, where's all those apples', says Marguerite.













'There up here', shouted Jude. He's parked himself up a tree and he's scooping all the good ones from the top.











'Here, how many apples can ye eat before you're sick?

'Dunno, but these things are nice'. The girls get stuck into the delicious apples, I wonder would they do that when walking around a supermarket, like eating the goods before they pay for them?

So how many apples can you eat?

'At least two, maybe three', said Claire as she munch her second apple.

'Here, me pecks full, I need another bag, Marguerite have ye got another peck, wha?

'No I haven't Jude, and if ye hadn't been so tight at the peck shop you wouldn't be in this predicament', replied Marguerite.

'Sure not to worry then, it's a nice day anyway so I'll just stand up here and eat some more apples then'.

Jude was amazed at just how tasty these apples were. Another time Jude used to go picking things in a field was when he picked potatoes in local farmers fields around Ballygalget when he was 12 or 13 years old. That was always done in October too. It was magic as it got him his pocket-money for spending but he always made sure he made enough to allow some cash to be put aside for buying his family Christmas presents. Selection boxes were about 1 quid then, so a few of those and then something nice for his Ma meant about 10 quid covered it. That was actually a lot of potatoe picking in those days.

Anyway......why were the apples so nice? Perhaps it was because he was picking them fresh off the tree and they have not been tampered with, who knows, but one thing's for sure, they were the nicest apples Jude ever tasted.

Meanwhile the girls are collecting their own apples.

'Come down here ye wee git ye.........get down here................I say come down here ye git ye', said Marguerite as she had about 5 jumps to try get this apple.

'Deh-nahhhhhhhh!!!'

Marguerite proves that if you fail the first time, keep trying, and trying again, and you will eventually succeed.

'Ahhhhhh'............Jude goes for a swing while munching on his 5th apple.

'This place is class, look at that', said Marguerite.

The trees were spectacular.













'Here what's these green ones like', asked Clare.













'They're yummy, here give me a few of those, they're the good one's for baking with', replied Marguerite.











'Sure Marguerite, what would you know about baking, the last time you made Jude a pancake you near killed him?' asked Allie











'Here Marguerite are you for baking an apple tart.............bloody hell............does that mean I have to eat it.............ah bloody hell, whose idea was this?' asked Jude

Claire and Marguerite soaking up the sun on Brooksby Farm.

'If I'm going to bloody well die eating a stupid apple tart I may as well pick nice apples for it then, mumbled Jude.











'Here cook these up'.

(If the tight git had bought a bigger peck he wouldn't have to stuff apples in his pocket!!!!!).

'Sure what else would ye be doing on a beautiful Saturday in October? asked Marguerite.

'Yum, yum', said Jude and he continued, 'this is my 5th apple and I haven't got sick yet, sure I may as well hammer on and see what happens'.

Ok, one last push for more nice apples before we go.

'Here Allie, you stand there, I'll pick 'em and drop 'em to ye, you catch 'em', Jude gives out instructions to Allie on this seemingly complicated task.

Margeurite and Jude were cooly colour co-ordinated today.

'After a hard day's pickin, it's time to go', said Jude as he parked in a tree for a pic.












'Haaaaw-diddy'.

'Yeee haaaa.....it's the apple-pickin-hayride'.













How many apple tarts can ye make out of 80 apples?

'Jude look, here's a pumpkin with your face on it', sniggered Marguerite.

'Hold on an apple-pickin-minute that's not me, that's Cormac.......or maybe it's Grace.....or Leah..........perhaps Riona too....it could be Emma though...............nope........I've got it now......it's definitely your brother Kevin, yep that's Kevin alright, it's a ringer for him'.

What's this? It's only cold apple cider............ ..........delicious it was too, just delicious.

As were the apple cider donuts.

'These are lush, aren't they Marguerite?, asked Allie.

'Yeah, but if he takes one more picture of me eating, I swear I'm gonna shove this donut......................................', said Marguerite

Pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumkins..........

America really does go the whole hog for Halloween, it's such a nice time as everyone gets involved in all these fun wee activities.

.........and it's all in a day's fun at Brooksby Farm.

That smile can only mean one thing .............danger...............Marguerite's cooking!!

She was kindly invited around to Allie's house for a baking party. Sure here she is peeling the apples...........

.............all peeled and chopped.................

...............then chucking in the sugar..........













.............rolling the dough...........













..............mixing it all up............


















........eh.......supping on a cocktail (what's that got to do with baking?).............

...........sticking on the pastry.............

...............writing M + J on the pastry (seriously).................

..........and chucking it in the oven.

Perfect!!!!

Marguerite did bake this beautiful tart but thankfully she had Allie's mum Linda on hand to help out (which was just as well, trust me!!!!).

'Quick, let's go, I've got to get back to Brookline to Jude to give him the tart while it's still warm', said Marguerite.

And an hour later Jude had the apple tart. The tart doubled as his birthday cake as that would be in a couple of days time.

'Well done Marguerite, this is the nicest apple tart I have ever tasted..................ever, ever, ever', Jude rambled on all night long.