The last weekend in September seems to be the time for apple picking; it's far enough into autumn that the the cooler temperatures have me thinking ahead to pumpkin flavored everything, baked treats and wearing tights with boots. Even though I'm 27, last year was the first time I had ever visited an apple orchard. The County Line Orchard in Hobart, Indiana is less than an hour's drive from Chicago and its bounty includes dozens of varieties of apples, a corn maze, pumpkins and sunflowers.On Saturday my friend Adeline and I drove out to the orchard and were greeted with sunny skies and warm enough temperatures that a jacket wasn't necessary. Since I took so many photos last year I tried hard to take pictures in different settings this time around-- I wore my "Dorothy" dress to the orchard, it's actually a 1950s square dancing dress that also did double duty as a Halloween costume last year (paired with ruby slippers to channel the Wizard of Oz star).
Due to the droughts faced by the Midwest and the rest of the U.S. this year the apples ripened earlier than usual, some orchards in Wisconsin and Michigan were even closed to the public Fortunately County Line is big enough that we were still able to go into the fields to pick our own fruit. It definitely wasn't as abundant as last year but if we had gone any earlier in the month it would have felt more like summer rather than autumn!
Of course the first thing we did was grab some hot, fresh apple cider and pumpkin doughnuts. So delicious!
I'm reaching high for an apple.
One of the varieties of apples we hadn't heard of before, "blushing gold".
It was more difficult than I expected to hold the apples in my skirt! I kind of felt like a fairy tale character here.OUTFIT DETAILS:
1970s boots: Village Thrift, Chicago
1950s blue gingham square dancing dress: Antique Mall in Fayetteville, Arkansas
1960s sunglasses: Antique store in Chicago
1970s mustard yellow beret: Village Thrift, Chicago
1930s (50s?) wood and lucite necklace: Pure Vintage Chicago
1970s straw & leather market bag: Thrifted in Fayetteville, Arkansas
It's kind of hard to see in these pictures but I wore my autumn themed bracelets-- a 1960s oak leaf and acorn bracelet on the left (from a garage sale) and my favorite 1930s brass apple / leaf bracelet on the right.
Somehow I skipped over the sunflowers last year but this year they definitely caught my attention. The sunflowers above were 9 feet tall!
A giant sunflower.
I'm standing next to the sunflowers for scale, I'm 5 ft 6 inches tall.
Sunflowers as far as the eye could see, can you imagine if this was your backyard?
Adeline decided to pick a few of the smaller sunflowers for her dining room.
The tractor above actually transported guests throughout the different areas of the orchard. This one was empty so I took the opportunity to pose with it.
Rows of pumpkins stretching up into the sky.
Hanging out with some giant and quite heavy pumpkins.
Adeline hefting a giant pumpkin, she decided to take a smaller one home with her instead.
A pile of miniature pumpkins.
Pumpkins of all shapes and sizes, you can tell they've been freshly picked due to the dirt. Visitors can also pick their own pumpkin in the patches too.
This giant cornucopia (horn of plenty) was set up just for taking photos inside-- of course I was in line behind several small children that also wanted to pose in it!Happy October everyone! Do you go apple picking? How do you celebrate autumn?