Growing up in the Midwest, I always went apple picking every fall at a massive orchard. Now, I live in the desert Southwest. We have one tiny orchard that has just a small section of apple trees that never really produces all that well. Apples are still a favorite fall treat, but now I just have to buy them at the grocery store. Luckily, our local store stocks many varieties and the selection just exploded as we’re heading into fall, so it’s time to spend a week with some fun apple activities and treats!
My girls recently developed an interest in cooking. They’re old enough now that they can actually help more than just make a mess. So, this week we not only focused on apples but also on them doing the work behind preparing these activities and cooking the recipes.
Apple Taste Test
The first of our apple activities was a taste test! I grabbed one of each variety from the store for a taste test. The girls tasted and rated all the apples to find their favorite ones. The contenders were Granny Smith, Green Delicious, Red Delicious, Fuji, Crisp Pink, Honeycrisp, Jazz, Ambrosia, Kiku, and Royal Gala. They rated them on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best. Kiku and Honeycrisp were their favorites.
I went a little crazy with dips for the taste test activity. I loved dipping apple slices into caramel sauce when I was a kid. Most years I try it again, but my tastes have changed and it’s just not for me anymore. My kids weren’t really crazy about it last year, so I thought I’d try different dips. We normally eat a fairly healthy diet and try to avoid processed foods and sugary treats. So…..
…you can image my kids’ shock when I can home with Nutella, Hersey’s Chocolate dip, marshmallow fluff, and caramel sauce! The marshmallow fluff was my husband’s idea. This was a staple in his house growing up, but none of us could imagine it on apples. I also added peanut butter to the lineup, but neither of them wanted to try it.
They tried every apple with every dip and chose their favorite dip for each apple. As I’m sure you can imagine, they were quite tired of apples by the end of it, but they didn’t want to stop! Their favorite combos were…
Granny Smith, Crisp Pink, and Honeycrisp with Nutella
Green Delicious, Red Delicious, and Kiku with marshmallow fluff
Royal Gala, Fuji, and Jazz with caramel
Ambrosia with chocolate
Chocolate was their favorite dip, but they preferred it without apples!
Apple Art
Next up for our apple activities, we we turned apples into stamps. My girls cut one apple in half vertically and one horizontally. You can see the star shape of the seed area when you cut the apple horizontally. Each little “arm” of the star has a seed. It’s fascinating how that one simple change gives you two completely different views of the inside. They dipped the apples into tempera paint and used them as stamps. I had envisioned a more distinct shape, but the girls had a blast and covered their papers in stamps.
My youngest had the idea of painting on the apple slices, so she led the 2nd half of the art class for us. She instructed her big sister on how to make a human face, an animal face, and ladybug wings.
Related Post: 15 Fall Picture Books for Kids
Apple Cider from Scratch
We “make” apple cider each year, but it just involves buying a jug of cider and simmering it with some spices. This year I wanted to make it from scratch. I’m not much of a cook, but I am really good at finding excellent recipes. However, my usual recipe sources left me quite disappointed. Most of the recipes had an insane amount of sugar or were not from scratch.
I ended up finding an apple cider recipe from scratch with no added sugar from one of my favorite health and wellness bloggers, The Wellness Mama. Score! My girls did all the work and didn’t completely destroy the kitchen. It was a bit hit! I will warn you, though, that the recipe filled both of our crock pots! You can easily cut it in half and still end up with plenty. This is going to be a new fall tradition for us!
Apple Pie from Scratch
We saved the best for last…homemade apple pie! Years ago, we belonged to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture group) and we received a huge pile of green apples one week. I had no idea what to do with green apples much less that many of them! My husband suggested apple pie, of course, but I was not a fan of cooked fruit. I found a recipe anyway and made it for him and our girls.
It turns out that I LOVE apple pie! Here’s my favorite recipe and even a super simple pie crust recipe. And if you’re like us and try to eat a healthy diet…just try not to pay any attention to the amount of sugar. We eat well so that we can indulge in these occasional treats!
Our Favorite Apple Books
And of course, like the good homeschoolers we are…we read some apple books this week. Their favorites were Johnny Appleseed – The Story of a Legend, Apple Fractions, Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie, and Apples. My oldest read A-Z Apples by Margaret McNamara to us…many times.
Spending a week with apple activities and treats was so much fun! It was fascinating to see how the kids discovered their own ideas about how to use them. Next up, they want to plant a couple of apple trees. Perhaps in a few years, we’ll be using our own harvest for fall apple activities and treats!
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