As easy as it would be to go and buy a pie at the store, I find it oddly satisfying to bake my own. Today I baked two pies from scratch- using apples from our own tree.

The tree we have is the sort of tree that has numerous varieties on it. On the west side of the tree are a variety of red apples. On the east side is all the green apples. I ended up picking about twenty apples or so of all the varieties. I was unsure how many I would need.

After peeling a bunch of our green ones, I realized I’d have enough apples for two pies. Good thing the crust I was making from scratch was enough for two pies. I also figured that since I was making such a mess in the kitchen, I may as well bake something else.

After a couple of hours, and using the oven in our basement as well- I created two apple pies and two banana bread loaves. The house smelled heavenly. Now to keep the family away from these goodies until Sunday night dinner! if they are snacking- they can try one of the red apples that I picked but never used for baking.