October 20, 2012: The Pantry at Delancey's two-part apple class started with a day of apple-picking in Tieton.
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I have to admit that, with a very busy week ahead of me, when I realized (at the last minute) Tieton is almost three hours away, I felt more exhausted than enthused at the idea of the day.
And when I hit snow at the Pass, I became more apprehensive about the prospect for the day. (I suffer from terrible carcolepsy, which often means I have to add an extra hour onto travel time for rest area napping.)
Once I got through the pass and into the Ellensburg area, things brightened up, as did I.
Arrived at Harmony Orchards in Tieton and the day was looking gorgeous by then. This is the view from the main house at the farm.
After intros, we clambered onto an open trailer and Craig Campbell, the owner (with his wife Sharon) of Harmony Orchards drove us out into the trees.
Apple-picking lesson: grip, and twist upwards. If it's ready to go, it should come up with just a little effort and the stem will come with. We started with Jonagolds.
Here Olaiya Land from The Pantry is labeling her bags of apples. We fairly quickly, as a group, and after just the first section of trees, used up most of the real estate on the trailers with apples.
I was curious why we'd come so far from Seattle for these particular apples since I had gone u-picking closer to home earlier in the year. Rebecca Staffel, owner of Deluxe Jam and teacher for part two of apple class, noted the quality and flavor of the apples (it was featured in the book American Terroir), the organic and sustainable growiing practices, and the positive working environment they've created for their farm workers.
The first apples I tried - Jonagold and Pinova - were indeed tasty, but I really understood the difference with Harmony Orchards' fruit when I tried their Golden Delicious. I had had no intentions of going anywhere near these trees; my experience with Golden Delicious is that they are mealy and bland. But Rebecca said theirs are different, so I tried them. And they were - quite different, a flavorful crisp apple.
The farm plants crabapples every few plants to help encourage pollinators.
We clambered back on the trailer to head to other parts of the large farm. The day continued to be lovely.
Harmony also grows some heirloom varieties for use in their cider (Tieton Cider works). These are Ashmead Kernel.
And these are Newtown Pippins.
Windbreak surrounding the orchards
I took all these apples with my to Foodportunity the following Monday to have an apple quiz - match the apple to the name. This quiz turned out to be generally impossible. This one in particular confounded many people.
Everyone thought the "Lady" apples were Pink Lady apples, but actually they are these little ones that are as adorable as they are flavorful.
You would think that Sharon, the other owner of Harmony Orchards, would be hard-pressed to find a novel way to use her apple-picking buckets, but the use as puppy carrier was, indeed, a new one.
At the end of the day, we weighed up all our stuff. I got 35 lbs for $17.50. I wish I had picked more.
After our picking, we went to the Harvest Hall in Tieton for a community potluck.
...where, in addition to a very delicious spread, we got to sample some of Harmony Orchard's cider - Tieton Cider Works..
...and some jams from Rebecca Staffel from Deluxe (who then taught day 2 of the class the next day. Those photos later.). That plum jam is good stuff.
Back to Seattle for part two of the class...
Click here for the apple preserving class gallery.
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