Year 2, Day 287: Tuttle's Orchard! Part 1

What an gorgeous, crisp fall day!  And we spent 4 glorious hours of it in the sunshine at Tuttle's Orchard.  I have heard many people say that they loved it, and now I see why!  We were there on their "homeschool" day, so we had to sign up ahead of time to get a full 2 hr tour, with all their activities included at a very discounted price.  Now, it would get pricey if you went on a normal day and paid for the hayride to the pumpkin patch and the corn maze and the tractor town separately.  Everything was well spread out, the grounds were clean, and the staff was super friendly.  The tour included the apple press, the grading process, the big refrigerator, 1 pie sized pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, 4 apples from the older apple trees, and a talk and display of one of the beehives!  All for $8 per person!  Wow!  We were in the early group at 9:30 am, so it was an early morning for us, but I brought some snacky food for lunch.  We ate between the tour time and the play time.  I had never gone to Tuttle's because of the price and the drive.  It's about 30 minutes from where we live now, but probably almost 40 minutes from where we used to live in Beech Grove.  But we are much more comfortable going 30 minutes anywhere and knowing that it's ok for Abishai to get a late nap or a shorter one like he did today.  The flexibility in the daily schedule is coming around again, woot! Woot!

Adventures before lunch aka the tour:

Hayride time!  Benaiah actually was the one who remembered Abishai was allergic to the hay.  It's a good thing he had long sleeves and pants on!

Selfie!  The only pic of me for the day.

All bundled up because it was only 50 degrees F this morning.  It warmed up to about 65, perfect for us!

We got a 5 minutes hayride out to a specific part of the pumpkin patch just for school groups where we could pick out a pie sized pumpkin.  Our tour guide said that most of the pumpkins have fallen off the vines by now and I think they do gather them from other places to bring to this part of the field, like Waterman's Farm does, so it's easier picking for the kids.  However, here at Tuttle's, you can also go out and pick from their more overgrown pumpkin patch to pick the bigger ones.  They have a couple of wood stands with different sized holes in them with different prices and you get whatever price from the hole your pumpkin fits in.

Even big kids can pick out a pumpkin.

Abishai was way more into this whole field trip than he was last year.  He seemed to know what we were going to do even on the drive out there.  He picked his pumpkin, put it in his own bag and carried his own bag back to the tractor.  They also had the ingenious idea of having us write the kids' names on the bags so we could leave them in one places on our way over to the rest of the farm.  And it proved helpful when we got home as well.

Awwwwwwwwwww....................

Our very kind tour guide who showed us how they hand pick the apples and how to gentle put them down.  She talked about the different kinds and what it takes for the apples to grow, too.

Ah, to have a "man" with us to reach the higher up apples!  These trees were the older variety that grow pretty tall.  The farm was established in 1928, and the 3rd and 4th generations now live and work it year round.  That's right, their store is even open year round!  They now plant dwarf sizes of the trees because they actually produce more fruit and you have to climb less to get everything.

Abishai listened well as our guide explained how to gentle twist and pull the apple.  He gently twisted and pulled!  He is absorbing everything he hears and sees, from us, from others, from TV shows, etc.

Explaining the different seasons and the work it entails on the farm.

This is a refrigerator and each crate holds 2,000 apples!!! They had smaller crates with varieties they use for caramel apples and other things.  As well as apple sauce in 5 gal buckets, pop for their store, etc.  It was incredible!

Ice on the wall of the refrigerator!

These are stacked 3 deep!

Grading apples: A for consumption like fresh and in pies, B for apple cider, and C for compost.  This is after they are washed.  Also, they spray the apples with water once a week because apples want some moisture.  So she suggested we put a wet paper towel in with the apples.  Interesting!

And this is why we bring Benaiah to these things.  We need a second pair of hands on the little guy.  Oh, and those were Benaiah's shoes.  But we were able to handle Abishai without a stroller the whole 4 hours we were there because of Beniaha's help!  Justin wanted to carry him, too.  I didn't really think he could handle Abishai, so I didn't let him.  Maybe I will on another field trip when Benaiah isn't around.

Dumping out the used up apple pulp from the apple cider press and then cleaning out the container.  As we were walking around this very operational farm, trying to stay within the parameters to stay safe, Abishai noticed all the big vehicles.  I called one an excavator and Abishai rightly corrected me and called it a backhoe!  He really does know the differences!  Amazing!

Getting the apples ready to go through the apple press for apple cider.  They usually use today's pick of apples to make cider and because they can freeze it, they have some almost right to the next year's crop comes in.  Also, their season goes from the end of July to the end of October!  There's a ton more varieties of apples that can be grown in Indiana because of their long growing season.  There are years where the trees have suffered because of storms or droughts and then they have to buy their apples from places like Washington State.  It's just the way farming goes sometimes.  It was 5 years ago when that last happened.

The apples go up the escalator and get pressed through the machine and pumped through this tube, that actually runs across the floor, to a tank where it's treated with ultra violet light to be pasteurized.  Then it can be bottled up, but we didn't see that part.

The big, noisy machinery.  In fact, the employee is wearing earmuffs (not sure what they are called) to drown out some of the noise).

Apple pulp.  Abishai got in there and touched it like everyone else.  He's usually not too shy.

I love these big totem pole displays they have showcasing all the different kinds and colors of pumpkins and squashes.  Our guide explained a few of the differences and said that the one she is holding now is actually probably the true color pumpkins were back in the pioneer days.  Now the pumpkins have been bred to be the bright orange they are now.

I love how Tuttle's had everything set up to make it easy to teach quick lessons about everything, especially with these big pictures!  We learned all the typical knowledge about bees to the fact that they paint the back of the queen so they can easily identify her.  And the guide also explained how the queen gives three eggs special "royal jelly" and they are the only bees that turn into females!  Then the first female to hatch eats the other two because they are her competition.  The rest of the talk was on the dancing they do, how important bees are, the differences between worker or drone bees and those that tend the queen, etc.

Abishai can sit still and listen well for a 2 1/2 yr old.  Remember, all of this is new to him.  The oldest two just have to endure it.  I think some of it is still pretty new to Keturah as well.

Listening to the talk on bees.

They did have a working hive in the same room as the bee talk.  It's a large panel with honeycomb on either side.  The bees only have access through a wooden box tube that leads to the opposite side of the building so they can't come immediately back in.  In fact, of all the places I've been lately, Tuttle's was the only one not full of bees bothering people while they had a snack at the cafe or near the apple trees or anywhere!  The farm is very spread out and it was a cooler day, which definitely helps.  Oh, and the queen is the one a tiny bit to the right and up from center with her back painted white.

The tour was then over and we were free to go to the cafe shop, the farm store, or back over across the road to do the corn maze, tractor town, or get some more upick apples and pumpkins.  Stay tuned to part 2!