*APPLE PICKING*

by Dana, Nick, and Max

On September 24, 2007, 5Z went on a trip to Norton Brothers Fruit Farm in Cheshire with our buddies from 3Y (Ms. Rhoads’s class). When we got there, we all gathered round the pumpkins and took some pictures with our buddies. Then we took a hayride around the orchard. MacIntosh, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and MacCoun: those are some of the types apples we saw. There were also some pears, blueberries, and strawberries. After that, we jumped off the wagons and went with our buddies to pick our apples and pears. We picked until our bags were full of juicy apples. We even got to eat some while we were picking!

After we finished picking, we took the hayride back to place where they store the apples. This place is called a freezer, but our guide told us that it's not actually freezing. If the apples go below 32 degrees F they would freeze and then get mushy later. So they are kept at 33 degrees. After a couple of minutes in the cold, we went to see the workers pack the apples. All of the apples go on a conveyer belt and they go into a washing and sorting machine. The clean apples go around and around on a another belt. The workers put small apples into three pound bags. They put bigger apples in boxes. The bruised apples are taken to a place to made into cider.

Next, we went back to the store. Inside we saw a bee hive with LOTS of bees. We ate lunch with our buddies outside the store and we had some apple cider to drink. When lunch was done, we said goodbye to our buddies and drove back to school. We all had lots of fun! It was better than having a whole day of recess.

You can see photos from our trip here.