Obviously living on a farm with an apple orchard, we have learned how to store apples for longer term use after our harvest. Here a few tips to help you when you want to keep your produce, specifically apples lasting longer. 

To maximize apple shelf life, wrap each apple in newspaper before place it in a basket. If one apple goes bad, the paper will protect the other apples from coming into contact with it. Store your apples in a cool basement, garage, shed, fruit cellar, or refrigerator. Make sure its not so cold that they freeze, freezing apples will ruin their texture. Do not store apples in a root cellar or near potatoes, the gases let off by the potatoes will spoil the apples. 

Just a little quick tip to start your weekend. Hope you all get to relax and enjoy yourselves!

Have you ever been to the fast casual restaurant Cubby's in Utah? It's seriously to die for. Fresh, healthy, good for you food with such great flavors. If you live near one, run there now. Seriously, what are you doing still reading this post? Go! 

I recently had Cubby's wild rice & kale salad. It's full of chicken, apples, and packed with savory flavors. I don't live within a days drive of a Cubby's, so figuring out how to make this salad on my own was a must. This salad isn't 100% up to the deliciousness they have created, but its darn near close. Make it today and your body and taste buds will thank you. 

Ingredients: 

Salad: 
1 head of kale, finely sliced into 1/8 of an inch strips
1 chicken breast, cooked, then diced
1 apple, diced
1/3 cup toasted almonds, chopped
1 cup wild rice, cooked
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 avocado, diced
3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Dressing: 
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lavender honey
1/2 tsp kosher salt
sprinkling of fresh ground pepper

Directions: 

Once your kale is chopped, toss it with the lemon juice to allow it to soften. Cook your rice and while the rice is still hot, mix it with the kale to soften it further. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Add in your other salad ingredients, dress to your taste level, and toss. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. 



Enjoy!

On the farm, people always wonder how we know when its time to pick our apples. 

We usually like to wait until after the first frost of the season. Your apples will begin to start falling from the tree when they are ready to be picked. When your apples are ripe, they should be fairly easy to pick from the tree with a simple upward twist of the apple. Try to avoid picking an apple by pulling the fruit straight down and tugging. If you have to pull very hard to get them off, they are not ready and you should wait a few days. Another trick is to make sure you don't drop them a far distance from when you pick them into your bucket. You should just set them gently into your bucket to avoid bruising. Peggy's favorite way to pick apples is to wear a backpack on your chest and place the apples inside as you pick. 

Hope you all have a wonderful harvest season!

Here is what the trees in our apple orchard are looking like. These will make for perfect caramel apples on halloween. The rest will be used for bobbing for apples, or will be pressed into the most delicious apple cider. The ones that fall onto the ground before we get to them? We feed them to the neighborhood horses. 

Speaking of horses, anyone willing to watch our lane tonight and keep their eyes open for the headless horseman? Happy Halloween!