How 'Bout Them Apples?

This was mostly a driving day. But we stopped for a tour of an apple orchard. We have seen these orchards along the highways as we've traveled. Today we got to see one up close.

Apple trees a grown very differently here than in the U.S. They are carefully pruned and supported by wires, much in the way that grape vines are. This makes it much easier to reach the apples and allows many trees to be grown close together in rows.

Of course, smaller trees mean fewer apples. But our host explained that this is preferred. In fact, they take steps to reduce the number of blossoms that are allowed to grow into fruit so that each individual apple will get more support from the roots and will grow larger. The goal is to get about 100 apples from each tree each year.

After our walk through the orchard, where we saw pears grown in much the same way as the apples, and cherries grown on trees in a manner more like we would expect in North America, we returned to the farmhouse for an apple tasting.

Then we were served lunch, much of it made from things produced on the farm, but surprisingly, no apple dishes.

Following lunch, we drove another two hours to get to our final hotel. This was described to us as a Venetian villa with beautiful grounds. It turns out to be just another hotel, but with a bit of lawn between the front of the building and the busy highway. It's not out in a rural area. In fact, there is a strip mall next door.

A fallow farm field makes for quite a crop of dandelions!

The two of us walked the neighborhood a bit, but it's just a residential neighborhood in the suburbs of Venice. We decided that it could be Blaine or Fridley!

We gathered in the bar for our farewell drink, and then had our farewell dinner in the hotel restaurant. It has to be that way, because there is really nothing else around here but a few pizza joints. We have to be up before 3 a.m. tomorrow morning to catch our flight home, so we won't be here very long.