Mountain View Orchards

We had a urge to pick fruit this morning, so we headed to Mountain View Orchards in Jemison.

There was a short wait to pick, so we explored the general store, which was  filled with fresh jam, apple butter, crates of apples and peaches, candy, cold drinks, and novelty toys. Then, we let the kiddos jump around on the bales of hay just outside. When it was our turn, we rode on a trailer hitched to a gator tracker.  Our first stop was to the peach trees.  Today, they were picking the early August prince peaches.  Our guide explained which peaches to look for when picking, and she even picked some ripe ones for the kids to snack on while picking.  After our baskets were heaping with ripe peaches, we loaded them in the back of her tractor, and she took us to the apple orchards.

We switched guides there, and our new guide demonstrated exactly how apples are properly picked.   We were free to roam one long row of trees and pick whatever we could find.  Once again, the kiddos had fun snacking on ripe apples while they picked.  After we filled our basket full of apples, we loaded it on the tractor and walked back to the general store.  The man working the store filled our baskets even fuller when the tractor returned with them.

The kids are having fun on apples and "apple peaches" which is what they call the peaches.  I have hopes of making peach salsa and apple butter.  We will definitely be going back soon.