"How to Bake and Apple Pie and See the World"

Today is the FIRST DAY OF FALL!!! Yeah! I am so excited! We have started talking about Apple trees and are planning our trip to the Apple Orchard. This time of year always has me so excited. Today we talked about apples. They go from bud, to blossom and from blossom to fruit. We painted apple stencil pictures. What a mess!!!! Tomorrow we will do more apple lessons and hopefully Wednesday make our trip to the Apple Orchard.

Every year we read the book "How to Bake and Apple Pie and See the World" when we get ready to go to to the apple orchard. It is such a neat book. It ties in so much geography during the book that it ends up being several lessons all rolled into one great book!

Much to my surprise out of all the ingredients in an apple pie only one originates here in the US. You got it.. THE APPLES! The book talks about going to Italy for Semolina wheat. You have to go to France to get a chicken to lay the egg. Then of course you must visit Sri Lanka to find the best cinnamon from the bark of the kurundu tree. Pick up a cow in England for fresh milk. Grab some salty seawater on your way to Jamaica for sugar. Finally, go to Vermont for the best apples. Can you believe all the different countries involved in making good old American apple pie? I look forward to this book every year with the kids.

Here are a couple of pictures of our apple pictures we made today. Apple stencils don't work near as well as potatoes but they lasted long enough for the kids to stamp a few apples on their trees. :)