View looking up!
In case somehow you missed it, I live in New York. In NY, September is apple picking time. Every year since I was a little kid, we've gone apple picking. Over the years the farm closest to our house has completely sold out and become totally all about making money by catering to the "city folks". This "farm" now charges you to park, they have loud live entertainment, a farm store with expensive gift baskets and pre-packaged mixes, and they're terribly crowded. It's ridiculous, yet the cars line up for their "day at the farm in the country". Well, most of the locals don't go there anymore, including us. We actually travel about 45 minutes north to a farm that still seems like a country farm.
The farm we go to is a somewhat small place, but they have everything you need, including a corn maze, animals, a farm market, ice cream, homemade doughnuts and apple cider, a hayride and of course, apples! Here's a view from the back of the haywagon:
Here's a beautiful view of part of the Shawangunk mountain range. Called the "gunks" by locals, it boasts some of the best rock climbing in the northeast. (As a matter of fact, when I attended the State University at New Paltz (aka SUNY New Paltz), I was able to take rock climbing as a gym class.) You can't really make it out in this photo, but we were able to see Skytop Tower, which is part of the Mohonk Preserve and is a local landmark.
The hayride is designed to take you to different parts of the orchard depending on what type of apples you'd like to pick. The nice man driving asked us when we got on what type of apples we were looking for, but I admitted that we just wanted to go for the ride and he graciously obliged. He even stopped and offered to take a picture of the three of us with the mountains as a backdrop (which we took him up on).
Eventually the hay wagon brought us back to where we started and we started down the rows of apple trees. This is a relatively small orchard, so there wasn't a huge variety of apples, but we didn't mind. The Macs (Macintosh) and Cortlands were the varieties that were most ripe for picking, so we mostly picked Macs although we did pick some Golden Delicious that were only a tad underripe.
You might think this is a small bucket of apples, but it ended up being about 20 lbs of apples, which just about fits perfectly in the bottom bin of my fridge.
Kept cold, apples will keep for a couple of months. They ripen very fast if left out at room temperature. Now if you've never gone apple picking before and you decide to go, do not make the "newbie" mistake of picking too many apples. Apple picking is fun and it's very easy to fill up a few buckets, or at some places they give you a large burlap bag or large plastic bags. You can very easily, without really meaning to, pick 50 lbs or more. Now even if you love baking and you love apples, that's still a lot of apples to eat before they go bad! If you go apple picking use self control. You'll thank me later, and you won't have to throw out 15 lbs of uneaten rotten apples.
Not that *I've* ever done that.
After we filled our bucket and paid, we went in the corn maze. A big bonus is that the corn maze is FREE. There are some local places that have corn mazes - would you believe the admission for the one closest to our house would be $20.00 for the three of us? To walk through corn stalks? You've got to be kidding me. The free one at the apple orchard was small, but it was plenty fun and it was FREE.
After the corn maze we visited the farm animals then checked out the farm market. Last but not least, DD and I got some ice cream, and we sat on some picnic benches and ate our ice cream and the three of us enjoyed the beautiful day and the good family time.
Before we made our way home, we did just a little geocaching, but I'll save that story for my other blog - So You Wanna Go Geocaching - you can go check it out if you're interested.
New York may have it's political problems, but we grow some mighty fine apples!
The End.
Hmmm...I left a comment, but it's not here. I was going to add that your photo of the "Gunks" is beautiful. It's a stunning landscape I saw for the first time last year while attending "A Taste of New Paltz", which is a festival held mid-September where you pay 2-3 dollars for tastes of food from local restaurants. In the background is the view on your blog. I was enthralled by the mountains and by the tower. The view only improves as you wind your way along the highways through the apple orchards and farms.
ReplyDeleteMy original comment was that I recently went to one of the local farms, where DC took me apple picking for the very first time. I found that the original owners retook ownership and returned the farm to a quiet country farm, reminiscent of the times when FDR sipped mint juleps in the garden. I spent the day there with DS in early September. Admission and parking were free, and the loudest sounds were the wind and the birds. It was lovely. I think we were the only ones in the entire orchard. The farm now prides itself on the agricultural revival of the Hudson Valley and uses natural and organic farming methods. The country store sells local produce including milk guaranteed not to be more than 36 hours out of the cow, and eggs laid by the hens that live on the farm. We had ham and eggs with fresh milk for dinner that night with fresh cinnamon sugar doughnuts for dessert, and I must admit, it was one of the best meals I've ever had.
This is such a great time of year - I love picking (and eating) the fruit.
ReplyDeleteI love apples!
ReplyDeleteAlso, so many people, when they hear New York, they think of New York City, and not the state of New York. So your pictures of the countryside could catch some folks off guard.
But the fall weather is my favorite time of the year.
Great post! You are turning out to be quite the NY Traveler. :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't been apple picking in eons. :$ I get mine from the local apple orchard. I have been SO wanting to try a corn maze, but would you believe no one in Oneida County has any?! Not that I know of, anyway. Good thing you didn't get lost. :)
Oh..we LOVE to apple pick and all the rest of the "pick-your-owns" that we get in NJ!
ReplyDeleteI dated a guy from New Paltz once and had relatives in Walkill ... Seeing your pictures brought me right back there.
Ohhhh .... you're making me soooo homesick ... I'm living out-of-country now for so many years. How I so long for the old fashioned market atmosphere!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your blog!!
The corn maze looks like fun. That's something we should try to grow ourselves when we finally have moved into our new home.
ReplyDelete