Fall in the Fruit Loop

October has been pretty busy (as you can tell by the general lack of blog posts this month!) But....we finally took time for fun and went apple picking in Hood River, OR. Hood River is located in the Columbia River Gorge, about 60 miles east of Portland. It was a beautiful drive and the timing was perfect. I think the leaves finally started to change on Friday night after dark. As I drove to work yesterday morning I looked around and something was different. Trees were part green, part gold and the roadside was scattered with leaves. Even though it's felt like fall for a few weeks now, it started to look like fall yesterday! So, we got to see some beautiful leaves on our drive to Draper Girls Country Farm.

The Columbia River

Apple picking has been on my list of things to do for years and I've been talking about it since August. We live in Washington State for crying out loud! How could we not go apple picking? Turns out that most of the apple orchards are located in central Washington about 4 hours away. Thankfully, Oregon's "fruit loop" in Hood River has a few apple orchards open through the end of October. Even better, farmers in the "fruit loop" not only grow apples and pears, but also grapes (separate farms!) so we stopped for a wine tasting at  Wy'East Winery on the way home! Draper Girls Country Farm is a charming little orchard with a beautiful garden and an adult-sized tree swing which I too full advantage of. I love to swing! The apple picking itself was lots of fun although I have to admit JSM did most of the picking and I did most of the photographing since the trees were a little tall for me. By this time of year most of the low lying fruit has been picked! But we got tons of apples so I better get my recipes out....we've got a lot of apples to eat!

The only apple I picked came off the tree perfectly...leaf and all!

Filling her up with Golden Delicious....my favorite!

Next stop was the Wy-East winery. When we set out this morning I didn't really think we'd be in the midst of a wine tasting before noon, but it just seemed like so much fun. And we didn't have any place to be.....so we tried a nice Pinot Noir, some Cabernet Sauvignon, a little Syrah, and some delicious dessert wine, bought a few bottles, and we were on our way!  

We finished the trip with a great lunch in downtown Hood River. It was a wonderful outing for this time of year. I can't believe we were able to sit outside and enjoy some sun on a late October afternoon. Of course, the weather was beautiful, but the coconut curry pumpkin soup made it especially memorable. You know I love me some pumpkin! Now, I just need to get to a corn maze next weekend and I'll have the full fall experience. I'm so glad there's one right down the street.....it looks like I'll be pretty busy in the kitchen!!

No trip east on I-84 is complete without a stop at Multnomah Falls.....one of my favorite spots!