Linvilla Orchards is like the Disneyland of apple orchards!

From Mr. Food VP, Howard 

Since I grew up in upstate New York and now live in Florida, I really miss the change of seasons, especially when autumn rolls around. 

So, during a recent trip to Pennsylvania with Art, aka Mr. Food, we had a few hours of free time between his QVC appearance for our new cookbook Mr. Food: Christmas Made Easy and a dinner meeting. Well, anyone who knows me knows that I needed to find some local food destination to visit to fill that void. 

Not sure if I would have any luck, I asked my Droid if there was a local apple orchard. Well, let me tell you, in less than 15 seconds, the navigation app on the phone had us turned around and headed to a local orchard. Even more amazing is that it was only 7 minutes away. Lucky us! 

As we drove up to Linvilla Orchards, it was like we were seeing a mirage. We didn’t find just “any” orchard but the Disneyland of apple orchards, filled with so much that reminded me of my childhood. I didn’t know where to look first! Should we check out the fresh apples or should we follow our noses to the hot-from-the-oven pies? 

We decided to focus on fresh apples and headed over to the farmers’ market area to check out the offerings. Just stepping inside and taking a deep breath made my mouth water. We’re talking every apple variety you could want, and all of them freshly picked. 

Art and I were like kids in a candy store! We filled our baskets with Macouns, Jonagolds and Cortlands. I even called home to ask my wife Patty what type of apples she wanted me to bring home. She thought and thought then said it didn’t matter as long as it was…chocolate-covered! That’s not what I expected, though I should have, knowing her love for chocolate. 

After we got in the car and looked at all we bought, it hit us. How the heck were we getting these apples home? We couldn’t leave them behind ’cause I was planning to have our test kitchen make some of our favorite apple recipes. Great apples like these are priceless. Needless to say, we stuffed every nook and cranny of our carry-on luggage with them and hoped for the best. 

Just our luck, on our flight back to Florida, we had a 1-1/2-hour delay on the runway due to backed-up air traffic. As we sat there waiting to take off, we began to detect a sweet aroma. You guessed it, the cabin began to smell like the orchard! At that point, Art and I just looked at each other and laughed, saying that it was a darned good thing we hadn’t gone to Wisconsin, or the cabin would have been reeking of another of Art’s favorite foods: aged Wisconsin cheese!