Sunday we drove to Hood River Valley and along the Fruit Loop, which is a 35 mile loop through the valley that takes you past several dozen orchards and vineyards, as well as a few specialty farms like lavender, chestnuts, and alpaca yarn. We had beautiful weather for apple picking, and I have a new favorite apple orchard, Mt. View. The trees were loaded with apples and the picking was easy. Each tree had a label tied onto it so you could tell the apple variety. There were dozens of different kinds of apples and pears. I got my usual 2 1/2 bushels, so it will be a busy applesauce-canning week around here!
