This past weekend, a group of us from CGSA went on a trip to Lynd Farm on what is becoming an annual apple picking trip.
Though the apple crops had been "greatly reduced" by late frosts in the early spring, many trees still had a crop worth picking.
We took our bags from the attendant at the entrance to this section of the orchard and paid for them on the way out. We paid by the bag, so we put as many apples in our bags as we could, and we put many in our stomachs along the way. 
"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate,"
"and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6).
I realize that the identification of the forbidden fruit as an apple has no basis in scripture, history, or archaeology, but the joke was too good to not to try. I also realize that Adam and Eve were not wearing clothes when they ate the forbidden fruit, but that level of authenticity would have been dangerous for multiple reasons.
The weather was quite hot that day, so we were eager to finish our picking so we could climb back into our air-conditioned cars. When we did finish picking and joking, we had several bags crammed full of apples, but the day was far from over.
We stopped at the concessions area of the farm, where kettle corn, apple cider and hay rides were available. Then, we went to the house Mark and Erin (who graciously posed for the Adam and Eve joke above) to turn many of these apples into homemade apple pies.
The cider was $0.50 for all you can drink.
Chris contemplated why several of his fellow Christian graduate students decided to play on a hill intended to be a children's playground. I also thank him for letting me borrow his camera for these photographs.
Since the sign was informing me that I was under surveillance, I thought turnabout was fair play
Once at the home of Mark and Erin, we formed an assembly line with different people responsible for washing, peeling, and slicing the apples. I was one of the peelers.
After they were peeled and sliced, Erin added cinnamon and sugar to the apples to make them proper pie filling.
She also made the crust from scratch!
Lest anyone form and false impressions of Erin, I should inform you that she is a woman of many diverse talents. She has a Ph.D. in immunology, a black belt in Taekwondo, a husband, and a cat. She is currently pursing an MD. In addition to all of this, she makes excellent pie.
This is one of those pies shortly before it was placed in the oven.
While the pies were in the oven, we played Guitar Hero and Dance, Dance Revolution (DDR).
For those of you who do not know,
DDR is a game played with your feet. One, two, or more pads are placed on the floor; they contain sensors to detect when you step on them. The game tests your ability to step on one of four sensors when instructed by the display on the screen. Different patterns of steps are assigned for different songs. Guitar Hero is played similarly, exec pt one uses fingers on a plastic fake guitar rather than feet on pads.
Guitar Hero does not actually teach you how to play the guitar, and
DDR does not teach you how to dance, but both are still useful for building an appetite for fresh pie. I do not remember what song caused
Arwen (at left) to start headbanging during guitar hero.
As you can see below, she refused to give autographs, or maybe she was trying to stop me from taking the photograph. The man standing next to her is her husband Paul.
Jona was amused.
We all enjoyed the pie with ice cream and whipped cream while watching Ohio State vs. Purdue in football.
Leigh received several compliments on her colorful and cute toe socks.
The cat, Riki, received much attention, as
usual.
This photograph is from the end of our time in the orchard. The sign is pointing to the section containing the Jonathan variety of apples, which we picked. The man standing next to the sign is also named Jonathan. If you click for the full-sized image, you will see that his shirt contains a geeky pun.
