It’s officially feeling like fall in Oregon. Afternoon temperatures are in the low 70’s, while mornings are in the upper 30’s. The leaves are changing colors, which I am absolutely thrilled about since I heard that it doesn’t get very colorful here. I’ve even had the pleasure of smelling some bonfires, which is a sure sign of autumn.
And what better way to kick off the season than a trip to the orchard? My friend Megan had the brilliant idea to go apple picking this week at River Bend Farm. Eric and I have an autumn tradition of visiting Evans Orchard in Georgetown (you can read about last year’s adventure here), so I’m pretty much always jazzed for orchards.
So Megan and I went to the farm in hopes of picking our own apples. But after talking to the owner, we learned that they don’t let people pick their own apples. But they do allow people to pick their own pears. I have absolutely zero knowledge about pears. So we ventured out into the great unknown with instructions to “pick the yellow ones and have the sun to your back.” Alright.
So we picked some pears. This mostly consisted of us picking pears that appeared yellow on the tree, but looked green in our hands. Apparently they are quite tricky, those pears. And then decided to wander the rest of the farm, which turns out to have a lot of hazelnut trees. I read that Oregon produces 90% of the country’s hazelnuts. Crazy. We kept following the rows and rows of hazelnut trees until we found a greenhouse, which we stood outside of for quite a while. Then a woman came out and very kindly informed us that we had wandered onto a different farm. But she was super nice and even let us take a few of her hazelnuts before pointing us back in the direction of the farm where we were supposed to be picking pears.
So we continued to wander. Eventually we made it back to the farm store to buy the pears we had picked, along with some apples and apple cider. Then we were informed that we had picked the wrong pears. Apparently only two rows of pears were ready to be picked, and we had wandered a bit too far. Then there was confusion between the owner and the cashier as to how much the pears cost per pound, which mostly made us feel awkward and a little stressed out.
But the good news is that the apple cider was delicious and the orchard was pretty. And we had a great time wandering and learning about pears and hazelnuts. I haven’t tried any of my apples or pears, but I’m sure they will be tasty, as they were picked with love, confusion, and awkwardness.
Happy autumn to you!
-Ally
[…] a few weeks ago, when a friend and I accidentally wandered onto a hazelnut farm? Well, the owner told us that they would need help with the upcoming harvest, so after exchanging a […]