Kid Baltimore | Family Activities with Children in Baltimore, Maryland

Dried Apples

Nope. I’m not going anywhere today. You can’t make me. But it always helps to have some sort of project to break the day up a little.

My parents gave me a huge bag full of apples from their trees this year. They were ugly, but absolutely delicious. I opted for making dried apples. I hauled out the apple peeler, which is an authentic turn-of-the-century deal and my daughter took over. She peeled and I sliced and cored. Here are the directions:

Peel, slice and core the apples. Slices should be about 1/4” thick.

Dip the apple rings in a mixture of 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1 quart water. This stops them from turning brown.

Put them in the dryer setting of your oven (if it has one, if not use the lowest setting) at 140 degrees F for many, many hours. The real directions say 6-8, but mine took much longer. Turn the slices after a while. They are done when you  can’t feel any moisture on the surface.

The only problem was they disappeared way too fast. The kids loved them.

Oregon Ridge Nature Center and Trails

There’s a lot to see at  Oregon Ridge, so I decided to break it up into a couple of visits. Today, was a gray day, and I thought a trip to the Nature Center would keep us warm and dry. My goal was simple: see some turtles. The Nature Center is a contemporary building tucked back in the woods. Inside, we found aquariums and terrariums filled with hissing cockroaches, snakes, newts and yes... turtles! Mission accomplished. There were also a number of exhibits that don’t creep or crawl, a lot of taxidermied animals that gave me the creepy crawlies, but that’s okay, and a busy honeybee hive.

As we headed for the exit, I couldn’t help but let the kids check out the trails. The land around Oregon Ridge Nature Center was a bustling iron ore and marble mining operation in the mid-19th century. We wandered past a reconstructed tenant house and found some well tended and very fancy chickens. The kids stopped and introduced themselves. Yes, to the chickens. I love the crazy part of being three. A little further on, we found the handicapped accessible trail. On a rainy day, with toddlers, this is a big help. The trail takes us past a few beautiful lookout spots. There are much longer trails that go for miles, but we will save those for spring when our legs are a bit longer.

Oregon Ridge has lots of activities throughout the year including a honey harvest festival and maple sugaring.

410-887-1815

Oregon Ridge Park
13555 Beaver Dam Rd
Cockeysville, MD 21030

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