Families enjoy fall harvesting
City slickers got lost in straw mazes and searched for the perfect caramel apple Saturday as they basked in the waning rays of fall sunshine at close-in farms.
Hundreds of families took advantage of a lull in rainy weather to pick pumpkins and apples at Green Bluff’s Apple Festival.
At Walters’ Fruit Ranch, most picking was done on ladders, since early crowds had taken the easy, lower pickings.
Still, the remaining tree-top apples offered some choice fruit.
“We found a haul. We found the gold mine of apple trees,” said Cheryl Wood, of the South Hill.
Her son, Nathan Wood, and his friend, Lester Lutke, both 8, climbed ladders, loaded their pockets with Golden Delicious apples, backed down the ladders and emptied their pockets into boxes. Within a half hour, three boxes were full.
The McMasters of Chattaroy have a 10-year tradition of picking apples at Green Bluff.
“It’s just been a great thing to do with the kids. The way the farmers set things up, it makes it really fun,” said mother Jenny McMaster.
Tim McMaster, the dad, picked from a ladder, passing apples down to Jenny, along with Melissa, 11, and her siblings, Jesse, 17, and Sarah, 7, who moved them assembly-line fashion into a box.
“In my opinion, the red ones are the best,” explained Melissa McMaster, who gave thumbs-down to green apples and said yellow apples are “the best for applesauce.”
As crowds gathered at Harvest House, jugs of cider disappeared. Marilyn Beck, who owns the farm with her husband, Gordon, expected to sell nearly 350 gallons this weekend.
The Becks purchased their Harvest House Farm in 1987 and have watched attendance at the fall festival blossom. As crowds have grown, so has the farm’s maze, which was originally fashioned from 100 bales of straw and now boasts 2,000 bales.
Mazes have become popular attractions at farms. One at Stateline Village in Idaho is so big a GPS system might be a wise investment for the directionally challenged. Another corn maze, at Green Bluff’s Pick and Pack farm, is designed to challenge adults and children alike.
But the bales at Harvest House are arranged mainly for kids, while adults are entertained by musicians belting out popular songs like “Monster Mash” from a nearby gazebo.
“I haven’t been in the maze, but watching the kids is great,” said Karen Jackson of Spokane Valley, as she watched her grandkids at Harvest House. “I think it’s their 10th trip (through) already.”
The Jackson foursome planned to ride in a horse-drawn cart before picking pumpkins, have lunch and enjoy the scenery, Jackson said.
“The sun is shining here and it’s a little brisk — but look at the mountains with the snow showing.”
Sandra Billings, of Spokane, journeyed into the maze with her son, Ben Sepinuck, 5.
Time flew by for Ben, who was busy contemplating directions, but passed slowly for his mom, who doesn’t like enclosed spaces. Ben estimated that he’d been in the maze for five minutes, but Billings said it felt more like 20.
“I think that he thought that he was on some kind of a quest,” she said.
Nonetheless, the maze held opportunities for photographing her son, and the two eventually made it out with the help of a savvy 4-year-old.
Cameras were everywhere as parents and grandparents posed their children in pumpkin patches, under apple trees and beside the farmers’ cooperative pets and livestock.
“It’s just so beautiful,” Billings said. “I think one-half of Spokane takes their annual family photos at Green Bluff in the fall.”