You have to time the visit just right. If you try to go up too close to Halloween, not only do you have to put up with heavy crowds, it’s also more likely to still be a bit too warm. If you go too late in the season, then either you’re fighting the Christmas crowds, or half the best stops have closed down. So the best time, we have determined, to go to Apple Hill, is the weekend after Halloween.

It was raining this morning – just a drizzle in Sacramento, but we drove through spots along the freeway where it was coming down harder. The worst rain was just before we hit Placerville, which I suspect is the reason for why so few people were out and about at the apple farms, but we didn’t care. We had an umbrella in the car, and jackets, and what’s getting a little wet when compared to obtaining fresh-picked apples and the best caramel apples and pie around.

We bought caramel apples, of course, and ate them for lunch later once we got back home. We bought a quartet of round little individual pies, which are currently residing in the freezer, to be pulled out and savored over the next few months. We shared a plate of apple crisp ala mode, dripping with warm cider sauce, and sipped hot mulled cider from tiny paper cups. And naturally, we also had to bring lots of apples back home with us.

There’s half a dozen or so Fuji apples, because those are some of Richard’s favorite, and an entire box of Red Delicious. There were also half a dozen huge, tart Granny Smith apples in the mix, but I dragged out my handy dandy peeler / corer / slicer contraption and turned them into two French apple pies. As for the rest, they will either be eaten, dried, or turned into apple date butter at some point in the next few weeks.

Aside from the trip up to Apple Hill, it’s been a rather quiet day. Richard went off to a Nanowrimo write-in, while I stayed home and cast on for the stocking I’m knitting for my niece. I continue to be surprised as just how quickly I can actually do stranded colorwork, since normally I am a fairly speedy knitter, but for some reason I always expect the colorwork to go more slowly. By the time I finally put everything down in order to go put together the pies while Richard worked on dinner, I was just about ready to turn the heel.

It’s NaBloPoMo time again!