An Autumnal Apple Adventure

I love Autumn, so much. It is the best season by far, the nights drawing in, the leaves changing, the Rugby (this year anyway), and best of all, the run up to Christmas. One of the best things about Autumn, and so underrated, is all the pie. I love pie. Sweet pie, meat pie, pie pie pie. So I was delighted with the below story. I was staying at my mum and dads a weekend in September this year, and my dad's colleagues invited us all around for breakfast and to watch the Rugby. They had such a lovely home and had invited heaps of people over. One of the couples that they invited over made their own homemade apple cider, and would get their friends to donate apples, in return for some cider (a few weeks later). So, after the rugger (New Zealand won... obviously), we all donned our wellies and went into the garden to "pick" apples. "Picking" apples involved shaking branches with a massive plank, and it was literally raining apples. I'd never seen anything like it. We spent well over an hour collecting apples and when we needed to get to branches that we couldn't reach, my dad (57 years old) rediscovered his inner 7 year old and climbed up to shake the top branches. See if you can spot him:

 I was amazed by how many apples we got from one tree only. I can only imagine the amount of cider, and the amount of good days spent drinking that cider. We filled up an entire trailer, I couldn't believe it! Apples as far as the eye can see:

Anyway, we all got invited to go to the cider makers home to help making cider. My mum and dad went along, but sadly, I had to come back home to London, so I got sent away with some delicious apples to do my best with. Well, my lovely David loves apple pie, and he's getting really good at making it too. I love to add cinnamon and soaked raisins or sultanas, and hey presto: the easiest, yummiest, most autumnal pudding. And all with apples that rained down from a tree with my 57 year old dad on it.