Jaker's and apples

 The Farm Bureau hosted a Fall Agriculture tour.   It sounded like a fun filled day for the boys and I so I signed us up. 

We started at a Halloween Festival called Jakers.   They started with the owner of Harward farms talking a little about his farming business and how his wife Sarah started with a small pumpkin patch that turned into agritourism that 40,000 people attend each fall.   

The corn maze, hay bail maze and tractor ride were highlights at our time at Jaker's but my boys really just wanted to play in the corn kernals.   

After playing for a while we participated in a couple of classes.  One was all about pumpkins and the other was all about apples.  They fed us lunch and then we  boarded a bus down to McMullin apple orchard and Mountainland Apples.

Aaron is an attentive learning and found it interesting that according to the apple tree owner, apples picked in the fall can last in a refrigerator until February if they haven't been waxed.  So why wax them they asked.  The orchard farmer said they suppliers wax them to preserve them yet it does the opposite.  

They let us each pick an apple and Aaron is convinced that unwaxed apples taste way better and he is only going to eat unwaxed apples from now on.  (I didn't tell him that because we don't have an apple tree he will be eating a lot of waxed apples)

After the tour of the apple orchard we loaded the bus again and headed to Mountainlands apple packing plant.   It was interesting to see what happens to the apples after they have been picked and before they make it to the grocery store.   I found it interesting that the plant operates through the winter and into May.   I asked the manager where they get the apples from and he said they put fresh picked apples in a room full of nitrogen and remove all the oxygen out of the room and then they don't keep ripening.   

 

On the way back to our cars the farm bureau women gave us a couple of packets and challenged us to take agriculture to the classroom.    I decided to share the lesson "All about Apples" with Aaron's Boy Scout troop and made up a bingo chart with the info.  We tasted a few different types of Apples, whipped up some apple dip and created apple "monsters"  

I met a really nice lady who I sat by on the bus who has an "urban" farm in Bountiful and grows and sells a ton of tomatoes each year along with other things.  We talked all about pumpkin growing and I'm committed to growing some next year in my yard.  She then got excited when I said I was thinking about doing an apple lesson to Aarons boy scouts and told me email me the pictures when  I finished the challenge and they would pick a winner at the next Farm Bureau convention.  

 I'm manifesting to the world that I want to win whatever swag coming my way.  🤞