Road trip: Thorp Produce Outside of Seattle
Columbia river Gorge on I-90
The Road Trip. Americana at its best. I have taken more road trips than I can recall. Here is just a sampling of a bit of the driving we’ve done: Vancouver to Montana via the Crows Nest highway in Canada- one of the most spectacular drives in North America, the PCH in California, Whitefish to Jackson Hole , The Lewis and Clark Trail beginning in St. Louis, MO to to Billings Montana and in the last two years Hunky Hubbie and I have driven 2220 miles back and forth from Florida to Montana, twice with a 90 lb golden retriever .
Ripe apples in Roslyn, WA
But I think my all time favorite road trip has to be Whitefish, MT to Seattle. The long open stretch of interstate on I-90 is a fantastic place to teach your kids to drive- little traffic and nothing but miles and miles of spectacular farmland in all directions. Passing through the Columbia River Gorge you can only imagine what it must have felt like for Lewis and Clark to reach the west coast.
I do love my truck
On our our favorite detours along I-90, is the massive family owned Thorp Produce Store in Thorp, Washington. Our first trip I was a novice and perhaps picked up a bit too much fresh fruit. We bought a massive jar of blackberry jam, and two- twenty pound boxes of peaches and honey crisp apples. Forty pounds of fruit!
This is what 40lbs of produce looks like: Fresh peaches & Honey Crisps apples
What was I thinking?
Peaches go bad in about 20 minutes.
So, HH and I peeled and peeled until we had a pretty decent case of carpal tunnel syndrome.
Note to self: do not buy 40 pounds of fruit that requires peeling.
The fruits of our labor: Bourbon peach jam
We made quarts and quarts of bourbon peach preserves, chunky cinnamon apple sauce (great with pork chops or on your morning oatmeal). With the miles and miles and miles of apple peel, I made apple cider vinegar. It takes three ingredients- water, sugar and apple peels. And time.
Pretty simple. And frugal.
So next time you find yourself driving along I-90 in Washington State, take a little detour and visit the gorgeous Thorp fruit stand. And bring your vegetable peeler. Watch for several recipes from our trip.
