ita, we went to pick apples just because. I grew up in a place with apple orchards and a cider press in town. I have a very strong memory of going to see the press operate and how it smelled and how the cider was amazing. I'd love for my kids to have those memories too but it's impossible here.

We picked stayman winesap, which I love but K was meh on. I mean, I think winesap are delicious, non mealy, balanced between tart and sweet apples. We could have pressed our own cider because they had a hand press. It would have been fun for the kids, but it does require actual work.

Instead we looked at horses and bunnies and mini pigs.

At the mill we stopped at (and I grew up in a town with a flour mill in addition to the cider mill), they had about 40 different varieties of apples for sale, including pink pearl, which are small apples with red flesh -- amazingly good. They also had 3 types of cider that they pressed, including a delish raspberry apple cider. Nom. Also, cider donuts.

I think I better open the gallon of cider in the fridge and have a small glass. If ever one questions the amazing life of the apple, read the chapter on apples in the Botany of Desire. They rock.

pink pearl apple tart: [link]

I can't wait until the MS tablet comes out. I really want to see this new OS, both on PCs and tablets. I'm fascinated by the different ways to do things. I mean, I look at the Apple suits against Samsung, and I can't work out if it was because they were the closest competitor at the time, or what. I admit, I didn't do due diligence on this one, but the cherry picked examples were they obvious-in-retrospect sort of thing.

I have an HP Touchpad. I like the OS. But, sheeit. There could not be fewer apps for it. I know, unsupported, but still...I paid 99¢s; for an alarm clock app (it honestly came down to that) and the free one I downloaded at random for my Touch is so much better. In fact, I'm running a clock on the Touchpad, but it has no alarm, so in the background the alarm clock software is running, but its clock is so horrible...

I haven't started looking on Android yet. But Clock that came from the vendor is a decent start.

From poking around the market, I don't actually feel any need to replace the Galaxy. It's thin, light, and *way* versatile. I *do* want the multi-window functionality, but I am not sure I'd like it in real life--touch screens are fidgety enough to start off with (uh, the Asus isn't a Galaxy replacement--it's a supplement, and it was deeply discounted. And has a keyboard and 16 hour battery life).

Because of the 80 degree weather in March that caused everything to bloom before the bees were awake and about and then frosts after that killed the blossoms, we are having a massive apple shortage here. It sucks. A lot of the local orchards aren't even opening because there is nothing to pick. Apple cider is ridiculously high - $6.00 a gallon (compared to around $3.00). It has hurt a lot of our local orchards and by extension, the local economy is hurting a bit.

Kat, have you ever read John Fowles novel Daniel Martin?

Aside from being a great novel (John Gardner considered it a masterpiece. I can vouch that is a very pleasurable read), it has a longish bit on apple varieties in London that's lovely.

Stayman winesaps are my favorites from the local orchards! (I just wish their skins weren't so thick.) I tried samples of all of their apples, and kept coming back to them and nittany. Honeycrisps just aren't as good right now. There are a lot of pear-y or applesaucey (ie almost cooked?) flavored ones out there. I see the appeal, but I like some acid, sweet and light taste. If it tastes like commercial applejuice or cider, too much.

Holy shit, I miss (fresh, unpasteurized) apple cider like whoa. (adds that to the list of stuff in New England I miss along with New England beer and Vermont maple syrup.) But this one's probably the hardest, because there is no decent substitution/approximation.

Doh, ita, I misread the question. Where?

It was in the high foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. North of Beaumont, east of San Bernadino. Shockingly we only had to be on two freeways to get there (it can take 4 freeways to get to our house from Burbank, even though it's 13 miles away). We had to go pretty far into the mountains to find cold enough places to grow apples.

The area is called Oak Glen -- right by Yucaipa.

We went there once when we were still in SoCal. Loved it.

Happy birthday to all the birthday havers!