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A Trip to the Orchard

October 29th, 2009

Last Monday Mr Chiots and I stopped by a local orchard to buy some apples to make applesauce & apple butter. It’s a great little orchard that is as organic as you can get and still have apples. They use the bare minimum of treatments on their trees. They also try to keep their business small and do things the way they’ve always done it. It’s such a cute little place, when you drive up you’re greeted by 5 dogs that are very happy to see you.
Dogs_playing_with_stick
All the apples are stacked under a huge tree beside their house. The owner explained to us that he could buy a second cooler, but then he’d have higher electric bills and then he would have to work more. So he just stores his apples outside and sells what he can before they all go bad.
Stacked_apple_crates
They had cats patrolling the crates for mice and I’m sure the dogs kept the deer, opossums and raccoons away.
two_black_cats
I was up till the wee hours of the morning today making applesauce with the bushel of apples I purchased for $12. What kind did I get? I simply asked them for a bushel of good applesauce apples and they picked out a selection of 4-5 different kinds for me. If you are anywhere close to Orrville, Oh, head on over and visit Hochstetler Orchards, 13460 Church Rd, Orrville, OH 44667.

Do you have a favorite local place that you purchase specific items from?

19 Comments to “A Trip to the Orchard”
  1. Emily@remodelingthislife on October 29, 2009 at 6:27 am

    that photo of the cats is so cool

    Reply to Emily@remodelingthislife's comment

  2. Mangochild on October 29, 2009 at 7:08 am

    Thanks for sharing your visit, it looks like a great place. This year, we had several local farms we visited each week to pick specific veg: Easy Pickin Farm for eggplant (well, lots of veg but particularly the eggplant), and Dondero Orchards for peaches. Apples – we are getting those from both places, and a couple of other orchards. The eggplant were really fantastic, with so many varieties.

    I haven’t made apple butter really this year yet, but I need to get moving! What kind of apples do you use for the apple butter?
    .-= Mangochild´s last blog ..CSA Share Report: October 27, 2009 =-.

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  3. Daphne on October 29, 2009 at 8:03 am

    Wow nice price for a bushel of apples. I don’t think I could get them around here for that. I’m trying to remember what apples I used for apple butter. I think it was Gingergold, McIntosh and Cortland.
    .-= Daphne´s last blog ..Chinese Cabbage Soup =-.

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  4. annie avery on October 29, 2009 at 8:43 am

    i made my first apple butter this year! it came out great, heavy on the cloves, for sure. i got my bushel of apples for 20 bucks and i’m, using the rest to make apple pectin. i ended up with three quarts from about 20 pounds before peeling and coring.

    Reply to annie avery's comment

    • Susy on October 29, 2009 at 9:20 am

      I like cloves, but most people don’t enjoy them as much as I do, so I make mine a little light on the cloves.

      I made my pectin this year from crabapples.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  5. KitsapFG on October 29, 2009 at 8:57 am

    The apple farm is charming and I bet it was a nice outing. However, the best parts of the post were the pictures of the happy pups and the darling kittens! They stole the show.

    Reply to KitsapFG's comment

    • Susy on October 29, 2009 at 9:21 am

      They were such cuties.

      Reply to Susy's comment

    • deedee on October 29, 2009 at 9:34 am

      i definitely agree! i’m more of a dog person, but the cats were too cute! perfect little black cats right before halloween :) my mom and i have been trying to make applesauce, apple butter, and apple pie in a jar for the past 3 weeks and things keep coming up. we’re supposed to try again this weekend but now i’m sick… so i’m guessing she’ll just get it done without me. i’m bummed, but i know she’ll share!

      Reply to deedee's comment

      • Susy on October 29, 2009 at 9:41 am

        Sorry to hear you’re sick, I had to put off canning something (I can’t remember what it was now) when I was sick last month.

        to Susy's comment

  6. Beegirl on October 29, 2009 at 9:49 am

    I wish we had a small local place like this. Last year a bought apples at the big flea market in Rogers, OH. I really need to look in to something closer..
    .-= Beegirl´s last blog ..Cabin No. 23 =-.

    Reply to Beegirl's comment

    • Susy on October 29, 2009 at 10:41 am

      It is difficult at times to find small places like this. It definitely takes some searching! Have you checked on localharvest.org?

      Reply to Susy's comment

  7. Jaspenelle on October 29, 2009 at 11:17 am

    I have two favorite places, every Autumn Equinox we go out to Harvest House’s Fall Festival to pick apples and pumpkins and get fresh pressed cider for freezing.

    We also go out to AC Stars, which is a small farm where the owner sells everything so incredibly reasonably (he doesn’t believe organic vegetables should be out of the price range of anyone) several times a year. This year we picked green beans, corn, beets, zucchini and butternut squash there.
    .-= Jaspenelle´s last blog ..Autumn =-.

    Reply to Jaspenelle's comment

    • Susy on October 29, 2009 at 11:23 am

      Both of those places sound wonderful! We get our cider at a small local press, it’s unpasteurized and wonderful!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. Pampered Mom on October 29, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    I love Paula Reds for applesauce, but hadn’t seen them locally. Then I came across a local place – they sell strawberries, apples, and concord grapes. I didn’t get any concord grapes this year, but I did pick up a bushel of #2 Paula Reds for $15. I’ve always meant to go back and get more since applesauce is a big hit around here and I suspect that the 11 quarts or so of it that I ended up with won’t even last until January.

    I love that they’re a low spray place – the bare minimum (hence the large quantities of #2s) and that they are involved with experimenting. They have all sorts of experimental crops as they’re goal is to bring back a greater diversity in plants in our area. So cool!
    .-= Pampered Mom´s last blog ..Changing Leaves and a Blogiversary =-.

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  9. nic@nipitinthebud on October 29, 2009 at 3:28 pm

    what a fabulous post and very current as here in the UK we’ve just celebrated National Apple Day. The local fruit sampled there was nothing like you find in the supermarkets and I’m on a mission now to only ever buy apples for local orchards (of which there are lots that I didn’t know about). The Apple Man at the local event was telling me why we should ‘give the boot to gas stored fruit’ and I’m just editing a video clip so I can share his wisdom on my blog. http://nipitinthebud.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/national-apple-day/
    (ps. gorgeous photo of the mousers)

    Reply to nic@nipitinthebud's comment

    • Susy on October 30, 2009 at 12:03 am

      It’s true, you can find all kinds of old apples around here. We have one old guy that will tell you about his old heirloom apples that he’s been growing for years and that he says are so much better than the other ones. He’s a wealth of info!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  10. Dan on October 29, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    I love apple season. We pick apples every year from an Orchard about 15 minutes north of use. They charge just under a dollar a pound and offer at least 15 varieties all maturing at different times during the fall. So far we have picked Northern Spy’s & Empire and will probably pick some Braeburn soon. Your kitty picture is great by the way!
    .-= Dan´s last blog ..Fall Crops Part II =-.

    Reply to Dan's comment

    • Susy on October 30, 2009 at 12:04 am

      I love all the different kinds of apples that mature during the year. Each week at the farmer’s market I buy a different kind for us to try, we’ve really been enjoying it!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  11. Kathi on May 5, 2013 at 10:29 pm

    I know this is an old post but I’m so glad I stumbled upon it! I started reading your archives month by month. Lots of fun, informative reading and great pictures. I live about 10 minutes from Hochstetler Orchards and have drove by it more times than I can count. I’ve been looking for a place who does minimal spraying on their fruit trees. So happy to find a place so close to me. I’ve thought many times of stopping there, but never did. I for sure will be visiting there this fall. I have been to the greenhouse just down the road from them :)

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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