A very common fall activity for families in the United States is apple picking.  This is an activity that gets people who live in the suburbs or the city out to a farm or orchard enjoying the season of fall.

Apple picking is a fairly easy activity.  Apple orchards where people can go to pick their own fruit usually have a sign out front that says “U-pick” or “Pick Your Own” to let people know they are welcome to walk around the orchard looking for just the right apples.  At the orchard people are usually given a basket or a bucket to collect their apples in and a special apple picker that has a small basket or pouch at the end of a pole that is used for picking apples that are too far away to reach with ones own hands.  Once the apple pickers have gathered all the apples they want, they bring the apples to a weighing station and pay for their apples by the pound.  Then they can bring their apples home and let the cooking begin…people in American often make apple sauce, apple pie, apple cake, caramel apples, baked apples, or they just eat the apples fresh.

Another American fall activity that is done with apples is something called ‘bobbing for apples.’  This is an old fashion game, that is now usually only done at fall parties, for example at Halloween parties.  It is a tradition though and many Americans have played this game sometime in their life (usually when they were children). The game is played by filling a large bowl or tub with water, then putting apples in the water, and trying to get them out using just ones teeth.  The apples will float on the top of the water.  So people have to try to get the apple with their teeth without using their hands or any other tools for help!  This is actually quite hard to do, and a bit silly.  A person can get quite wet trying to get an apple too of the bowl of water.  Take a look at the picture below to get a better idea of what bobbling for apples looks like.  After going apple picking and bringing home a bunch of apples, this is just one of many things people do with their apples in the fall.