... there are something like three different orchards along the drive from Minneapolis to my girlfriend's hometown. Last week, we checked one out - tractor rides out to the pickin' trees, a corn maze, an enormous gift shop. A little touristy, but we had a good time. The place is called Minnesota Harvest.

We picked 10 pounds for 10 bucks, then we bought two 40 pound boxes of "2nd tier" apples for $12.50 a piece. A 2nd tier apple may have gross black spots or even some rot, but most were either slightly misshapen or had minor knicks and dents. The next day, we bought one of those all-in-one apple peeler/slicer/corer apparatuses for another 20 bucks. Since then we've had three afternoons dedicated almost entirely to processing these apples. We have gallons of apple sauce, apple butter, and 16 quart sized jars full of baking apples ready to be popped into a pie or a crisp at a moment's notice. We are preparing to hibernate.

What I'm trying to say is, it was fun, rewarding, and on the whole, cheap. Gross should come to Minnesota and try the 2nd tier apples.

He did make one good point, though: most people don't have time for all that canning. My girlfriend and I are young, childless and unemployed. We literally had nothing better to do. Maybe it's time to go into the apple butter business, before the savings run out?

I used to live in MN, and every fall we'd head to Bayfield in WI and go apple picking. Loved the fresh cider. I always wondered why we'd go pick apples since we had about 8 apple trees in our yard of different varieties.

Favorite apples: the apples they sell at the MN State Fair in the produce building.

And apples here in Wyoming, even the gross red delicious, are like $3.00 a pound. I miss the close proximity of apple orchards to pick at, or trees in the yard.

Diud go to the local parks this fall and picked about two bags of crab apples, made crab apple jelly for the first time in my life....delish!