I think it was in October 2012, my daughter who was then studying in a play school in Columbus, Ohio, had an apple school tour to Lynd Fruit Farm at Pataskala in Ohio. We were in Columbus, Ohio at that time.
There is no transport facility for the play school, so parents were asked to get their kids to Lynd Fruit farm in their own vehicles.
It was a cloudy morning and the weather was quite chill. One of my daughter's classmate's parent (an Indian / Keralite) staying close to my house offered help. She took us in her car to the fruit farm. As parents were asked to accompany their kids for the school tour to Apple Farm, I got the wonderful opportunity of visiting the farm. Being a South Indian, I never got the chance of seeing apple trees. And I was too excited to see the apple farm and equally excited on plucking the delicious juicy fruits.
It was an an enjoyable drive through the quiet roads in the chill and cloudy morning. We reached Lynd Fruit farm and could see many parents like us getting their kids. Here is the picture of the lonely road with red leafed trees on either sides.
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| Way to Lynd Fruit Farm |
On reaching the farm, we could see the sign board displaying 'Apple School Tour Enter Here'. Well, that was perfect and we made our way into the farm. We could see the parents of other children too entering into the farm.
I could see the children from other schools too moving around in the farm along with their parents.
The kids initially had an interactive program where a felt board apple tree was on display. All the basic information on apple tree was given to the children. The kids were even involved in the activity of sticking flowers and fruits on the apple tree. They even learned about the animal orchard helpers like ladybugs, bees etc.
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| Interactive class |
After the interactive class, the kids and the parents enjoyed freshly extracted apple juice. Hmm! delicious. After relishing the fresh drink, we were supplied with 2 lb bags to pick apples in the farm. And there you can see the apple farm with rows of trees and delicious, juicy apples hanging on the trees. I was amazed to see the fruits on the ground. It's like seeing brinjals (egg plants) or tomatoes on the ground in farms in India.
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| Rows of apple trees in the farm |
Not only the kids but parents too enjoyed the trip. I was so thrilled to hand pluck the juicy apples from the trees. Even my kid plucked few and you can see the kids filling the bags with green juicy apples plucked with their hands from the trees.
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| Kids filling the bags with hand plucked apples |
We were told that we can directly bite the apples and enjoy the juice. I took one ripe fruit and the moment I had bitten the juicy fruit, hmm! so fresh and delicious!, I couldn't resist and had the full apple. It was the first time in my life to relish a hand-plucked fresh juicy apple.
After tightly packing the bags with apples which literally bulged, the kids enjoyed some time in the nature.
After all the fun and enjoyment in the chill and cloudy weather, we thanked the people at Lynd Fruit farm, thanked the school teachers and drove back to home with two bags full of hand picked crispy and juicy apples.
It was in fact a memorable trip.
