As I pulled myself out of bed at nine o’clock AM on a Saturday, I knew my roommate was asking herself the same thing I was: is this worth it? One look at the busy but adorable orchards we were visiting was all it took to know it was.
We met the Honors Planning Board in front of Perkins and piled fourteen people into three University of Delaware vans. We were off. It was a shorter drive than expected.
Milburn Orchards has a large wagon to transport you from the parking lot (I use that in the loosest sense of the word; it was a field) to their apple orchards. These were our first stop when we finally got there around ten thirty. They had three different kinds of apples to choose from. I stuck with my golden delicious, but my friends branched out a bit, plucking red delicious and mutsu off the trees, all of which are dwarfs, to make it easier for visitors to pick fruit.
The red delicious is known to be juicy but fairly tasteless, while the golden delicious is much sweeter. Personally, I like my fruit to be sweeter, which is why I stuck with the golden delicious. The mutsu, on the other hand, is also sweet, supposedly with a bit of spice. I had never tried that type before, so I didn’t get a lot of them. The one I’ve eaten did taste good, though.
Once we’d exhausted our apple-picking energy, we headed for the “Big Backyard,” otherwise known as the petting zoo, where they keep all the animals. Inside, we made a beeline for the baby goats.
As my friends and I squealed over the cuteness overload, a goose squawked because there were three geese in a pen on the other side of the baby goats. I have yet to figure out why. The brave people surrounding that pen probably appreciated their presence, though.
There were also pigs, rabbits, quail, a horse, a donkey, and a Scottish Highland cow. The minute my friend, Abbie, saw the horse, we lost her. Soon enough she was patiently teaching small children how to safely interact with the large animal while we joked that she should be getting paid. The parents surrounding us certainly thought she was.
Our next stop was the market, where the many local products Milburn carries are sold. It was almost entirely delicious-smelling food (especially pastries). There were even special apple cider donuts that they made right there in the store.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to try my apple cider donut due to a mishap while warming it up later that day. I won’t get into it now (I could have sworn the instructions said to warm it for one minute), but I was disappointed. My roommate thoroughly enjoyed hers and did not share. Portia (my roommate) is actually the one pictured above. I think her giant apple find clearly emphasizes the enjoyment we experienced throughout the trip.
I wouldn’t have even known Milburn existed if not for the Honors Planning Board organizing this event, which I found out about through the weekly Honors newsletter. Overall, the trip was very well organized and fun, and I would definitely go on another trip with the group.
