The Strange Apple Rituals of New England Folk

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Until recently, New England's obsession with apple related activities was completely foreign to me. In one day I went apple picking, attended a neighborhood apple pressing party, and then rolled up my sleeves to make homemade apple pie from scratch. 

I never had the opportunity to develop my inner horticulturalist even though I was raised in the Garden State.

 I was feeling a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I wasn't in Berlin anymore. Is that a tractor?

Who knew there were so many different types of apples, each with a unique taste and texture

 Naturally I had to try them all. The rule was if you picked it you had to put it in your bag or eat it

 We picked about 20lbs of apples. After our hard work in the field we headed to a cider making "party"

One of my friend's neighbors had an apple press that his grandfather made years ago by hand.  He invited the entire neighborhood over to make cider and enjoy the abnormally warm fall day. It was my first time seeing one of these things. Most people were happy with fresh cider, I added a bit of spiced rum to mine.

After the cider press experience we still had about 18lbs of apples left

 We enlisted the help of Betty Crocker and white wine and decided to make some pie. 

We just starting peeling and slicing, I have no idea which types of apples made it into the pie

The fruits of our labor, forreal!

Fast forward a few hours later and there you have it. Two beautiful homemade apple pies!! So proud

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I found the whole apple picking experience fascinating. Apple picking isn't a popular past time in the concrete jungle. I was against it until they promised that we could make apple pies. If you want to see more pictures of the pie making process check out my facebook page.

Be sure to follow me on twitter! @nicolenewblack