First Stop: Apple Annie's Orchard for Apples for Roberta to Make Applesauce
Second Stop: Echo Canyon Trailhead in Chiricauhua National Monument
Third Stop: Mi Casa Restaurant in Benson, AZ
1 Roberta wanted some apples from Willcox orchards for putting up some applesauce, so Suzanne and I incorporated a stop in Willcox (AZ) into a hiking trip to the Chiricahua National Monument which is south of Willcox. We stopped at Apple Annie's Orchard to get some Granny Smiths and some Pink Ladies which are the only varieties they had left at this time of year. We had to go out in the orchards and pick the Pink Ladies.
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3 Photo by Suzanne
4 Photo by Suzanne
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6 OK. Apple picking over, we drive down to Chiricahua National Monument to the trailhead for the Echo Canyon trail.
7 Our view of Sugar Loaf Mountain just nw of the Echo Canyon trail
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21 Photo by Suzanne
22 Photo by Suzanne
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28 We come to the Grottoes, an area of particularly interesting and unique rock-lined corridors and passages.
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34 Photo by Suzanne
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36 Photo by Suzanne
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42 On the way back to the Valley, we stopped at Mi Casa Restaurant in Benson for late lunch/early dinner. This is one of our favorite "apres-hike" eateries. We both ordered enchilada banderos which is three diferent types of enchiladas in three different sauces and with rice and beans. Mi Casa is a little hole in the wall, mom and pop Mexican restaurant, but they serve their delicious dishes in the most artistic presentations we have seen in Mexican restaurants. Photo by Suzanne.
43 The next day Don helped Roberta put up applesauce from the freshly picked apples we brought back from Willcox. This is the applesauce from about a half bushel of Granny Smiths. The four containers on the left contain a mixture of applesauce and puréed strawberries. All of these are ready to go into our freezer for use over the next year. Yummy. We had left another half bushel of Granny Smiths which we will give out to family and use for other purposes.
44 Here Roberta is putting up a half bushel of Pink Ladies. We had another half bushel of these left which will be given out to family and eaten.
