In which I Learn a Tasty Lesson

November 2, 2016

OK, why am I sitting on the counter surrounded by jars?? Because my host mom made applesauce!  I bet you didn't know that Washington grows more apples than any other state.  Here is a map of the State of Washington.

Down the middle are the Cascade Mountains. They divide Washington into two very different climates. Eastern Washington is a lot like Pennsylvania, where I'm from. Summers are hot and dry with thunderstorms. Winters are Brrrr. Cold and snowy.  But West of the mountains is a whole different story. Over here it rains almost constantly nine months out of the year. The temperature rarely drops below 30 in the winter or goes above 80 in the summer.  They don't get much snow over here. Here's a fun fact: there is no poison ivy West of the mountains, and there are no poisonous snakes either.

The Cascade mountains were created by volcanoes.  You can see one of them, Mount Rainier, from just about everywhere around my host family's home. Here's Mount Rainier, looking out the car window on the way home from homeschool co-op:

Other volcanoes in the Cascade Range are Mt. Baker and Mount St. Helens.  Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 and covered the whole place in ash.  My host mom says we'll go there later. I'm excited and nervous at the same time!
 On the Olympic Peninsula to the far west of the state there is another mountain range called the Olympic Mountains.  The tallest one is called Mount Olympus.  And between the Olympics and the Pacific Ocean is the Hoh Rainforest.   They have mountains, prairies, oceans, volcanoes, and a RAIN FOREST! Isn't that WILD?

But back to the apples: The apple orchards are in Eastern Washington. Every year the harvest starts in August and lasts until November and yields more than 100 million boxes of apples, each weighing about 40 pounds.
Every single Washington Apple is picked by hand. There are no harvest machines to pick apples. My host dad once had a job picking apples. He says it's hard, even if you don't fall off the ladder. Which he did.
 
We went out to the store and got stickers for my travel journal from every apple we found that said "Washington Apple" on it.  I bet if you go to your grocery store you can find a bunch of different kinds of Washington apples. How many can you find? I bet you can't find as many as me!

Today my host mom had some time and so she made applesauce. I helped her, and the jar in front of me is MINE!