I <PICK> NJ: Watching My Family Grow From Under The Apple Trees

The first time Tara and I went apple picking at Hillcrest Orchards was almost exactly three years ago.

Our first trip to the orchard in fall of 2022.

It was a magical day in her first pregnancy where she no longer felt constantly sick, but hadn’t yet been diagnosed with gestational diabetes (…only briefly soured by one burst of tears when a bagel shop accidentally put ketchup on the Taylor ham, egg, cheese, and hashbrown sandwich Tara’d been looking forward to all weekend. Thankfully, the guys at Firehouse Bagels were very accommodating when I showed back up 20 minutes after I had left, begging for a mulligan.)

I think I enjoyed the bumpy tractor ride more than pregnant Tara, but we definitely both liked talking about bringing our kids here some day.

We spent that first orchard trip enjoying delicious fresh apple cider donuts, a bumpy tractor ride up to the trees, and imagining what it’d be like to pick macouns and honeycrisps with our daughter some day.

2024: Our second trip to the orchard with Margo and DebDeb joining in.

Last year, we brought Margo and her Grandma DebDeb for the first time and it was even better than I pictured. Her 1.5 year old teeth couldn’t easily break through apple skin just yet, but they had no problem tearing through a donut.

Margo’s very first tractor ride.

I didn’t think we could top that trip, but on Sunday we returned to the orchard. This year Margo’s Kennpa joined the party and so did her little sister who, god-willing, will make her official entrance sometime in late January, and in a year or two we’ll make her start earning her room & board by picking apples too.

2025: A 5.5 person apple-picking crew

Having one kid in the 2020s was a pretty wild roll of the dice. Doubling down now is an even riskier bet. Tara and I have very rewarding — but challenging — jobs in a rapidly evolving industry; the country is being steered in an unstable, hateful direction; and I have no idea what the world will look like when 2026 and then daughter #2 both hopefully arrive.

So far Margo calls her little sister Oogie Boogie, we’ll see if that name makes it to the birth certificate.

But something David Byrne said at his Radio City Music Hall show last night really resonated with me: In today’s world, “Love and kindness are a form of resistance.”

Margo doing her best apple farmer impression.

I know that I have an amazing partner; one hilarious, sweet daughter, and incredibly inspiring relatives from coast-to-coast, and that gives me a lot of hope for the life we’ll give the newest member of our family — and the unpredictable ways she’ll enrich all our lives too.

Margo supervises Kennpa’s picking skills

I never planned to leave the Midwest. If I had to guess I would have told you I’d most likely settle down in the Twin Cities or Chicago. The first five years I lived in NYC, I was sure I’d move back home after one more season of TV… but thankfully life surprised me.

Okay, Margo might have been ready for the tractor ride back down the hill at this point.

I didn’t choose New Jersey, but I’m so glad a Jersey Girl picked me and now every year, and ultimately every day, I get to pick this crazy state of bliss with my family of Jersey Girls.

…now we just have to figure out what to do with all these apples!

My Song Of The Day: “Chinatown” by Bleachers [feat. Bruce Springsteen]

Do you think I’ll be able to fit two Jersey girls on my shoulders?