We had grand plans on Saturday to head into DC and attend the Library of Congress National Book Festival. It sounded wonderful – loads of great author talks, books signings, heaps for the kids – but by Friday afternoon we were all exhausted and Richard had to fly to Belgium late Saturday so I made an executive decision to skip it. We should have at least two more chances to experience the festival before we leave the US, so we opted for a quieter day at home which we hoped would culminate in victory on the water in San Francisco! Ha – those plans were foiled.
Instead we made a visit to one of our local markets – Marker-Miller Orchards – to do a wee bit of apple picking.
At Marker-Miller you can pick your own fruit, take a wagon ride and sit on a rocking chair on the porch whilst the kids run around in the play area. It’s always busy and a quick glance at the licence plates in the car park tell you that people come from many other states to load up on fresh fruit and vegetables, and the baked goods, cider and preserves you can buy in the shop. It reminds me a lot of living in Hastings and going with Mum to get our produce from one of the numerous orchards not far from where we lived.
Picking apples in the US requires the use of technical vocabulary – specifically the words bushel and peck. Bushels and pecks are measures of volume, with a peck being equivalent to 2 gallons and a bushel being equivalent to 4 pecks or 8 gallons. So if you ever wondered just what the “peck” Peter Piper was picking, now you know!
When the girls were very little we used to visit the library at least once a week and we’d always come home with kids music CDs. Our library had a great selection and the wonderful Dan Zanes was one of our favourites. We loved to sing along to his rendition of a song called Bushel and a Peck – we had no idea what those two words meant but we loved belting it out – especially the “doodle oodle oodle” bit!
Bushel and a Peck was written in the early 1950’s and was introduced in the musical Guys and Dolls. Here’s the hugely popular Doris Day version…
Right I’m off to do something with a bushel load of apples! They may be hurled at the television later this afternoon!!
Take care everyone. Missing you all and sending lots of love xxx
on the cRoad again 
A good (Doris) Day was had by all – also funnily after nearly a monh without rain, the drought broke as we started picking!
Ha ha – nice play on words there đŸ™‚
B ushel and a Peck, memories of Doris Day and getting those 1940’s maths problems that teachers used to give us back then for some reason featuring bushels This Blog should draw lots of new recipes featuring APPLES. Well Chris here goes (its out of the “SIck Book”!!!
5 MINUTE PUDDING (one of Aunty Katie’s
Ingredients: 2 eggs, beaten up with 3 tblspns.sugar and 2 tablspns milk,4 tblspons flour (plain), 3 tspns baking powder. Pour into a shallow dish, bake for 5 mins at moderate oven/ Turn out and spread with stewed apples and jam. Roll up like a spongeroll in a tea towel, then cut and serve with cream or ice cream.
Mum
It’s really from the “sick book”? Sounds like something Olive could make with a wee bit of help. Apparently peck is a scottish word.