Page 109 of Losing the Rhythm

“And more,” he said. “We get to pick our apples and then take a class to turn them into apple pies.”

“Apple pie.” I narrowed my eyes. “Did you talk to Toby?”

“About what?”

“He’s mad I chose pumpkin over apple pie.”

“Ah, yeah. He’s in love with apple pie.”

“So apple picking and a cooking class?”

“Do you already know how to make apple pie?”

“Never made a pie in my life,” I admitted.

“Perfect.” Bryan smiled. “Me either.”

The orchard was nice. There were some people, but I didn’t feel like it was overly packed. Maybe it was because we were outside and the orchard seemed pretty large. Bryan led the way over to where we had to pay.

Once he handed over money, we were given baskets and told to wait near the orchard for a man to come give us instructions. We were also reminded of when the cooking lesson started, which was in an hour.

“What do you think?” Bryan asked as we waited for the man to finish talking with some other people.

“This is interesting. I’ve never done apple picking before, so I’m curious.”

“Good.”

The man finally came over with a warm smile behind his beard. “Welcome. Have you ever picked apples before?”

“No,” we replied, nearly in sync.

“That’s fine. I’ll give you some tips and then let you go have some fun.” He quickly went over the rules about not littering, about being respectful to the trees, not damaging them, carving into them, or breaking branches. Then he gave us tips on how to pick apples.

“Any questions?”

“I think we’re good,” Bryan answered.

“Great. Have fun and let any of the workers in the orchard know if you have questions or need any assistance.” He gave us one final smile before moving on to the next people waiting for his instructions.

“Well then, shall we?” Bryan asked.

“Sure.”

We headed over to where they told us to go for the apples. As we walked over, the trees we were walking by were already picked over.

“These are small trees,” I said. I never really paid attention to apple trees, but I knew they were tall.

“They’re meant to be grown to this height. It also depends on the tree types, but they’ve been adapted to be like this. I think the term is dwarf trees, but I’d have to look it up. My understanding is that it’s supposed to be faster in producing fruit, easier maintenance, and they have room to grow more trees. It also allows us to come and pick apples without having to risk climbing a ladder and falling off.”

“Never thought about that,” I said.

“We should be coming up to the ones we’re allowed to pick,” Bryan said. A few more rows and trees bearing a bunch of apples came into view.

“Oh wow, this is pretty,” I said. It was a long row of neatly placed trees, most of them bearing red fruit ready to be picked.

“Not bad,” Bryan said and went over to a tree, looking at the fruit.

“So we get to fill these baskets?”

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