Best Spots For Apple Picking

Best Spots For Apple Picking

Apple Picking Near Me: Through the end of October, Monday straight Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (last shuttle leaves at 1:30 p.m.) and Friday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (last shuttle leaves at 5 p.m.). Special activities run from noon to 5 p.m. on the weekends.1 hour (1000 Marshallton-Thorndale Road, West Chester)

If weekends are your approved time to get lost in a sumptuous orchard, this might be your apple-picking farm of choice. You can pick throughout the week, but the weekend component hayrides, plus beer, wine, and food trucks. Eighteen apple varieties are available to pick between early September and late October, and the farm offers ample kid-friendly enterprise and adult-friendly workshops on the books for the fall season.

Best Spots For Apple Picking

Apple Picking

Come autumn, locals head out of town to go apple choice near Philadelphia—one of the quintessential things to do in the fall in this region. There are several farms within an hour’s driving distance of the city that offer all kinds of delicious varietals that you can’t find in the local supermarket—and, in some cases, loads of apple-based treats like donuts and cider that rival some of the top bakeries Philadelphia has to offer. Apple choice near Philly is a great option for families looking for things to do in Philadelphia with kids, or a bucolic autumnal road trip with a carload of your best pals. Happy plucking!

Far away enough from the city to escape, but close enough to be convenient (doorstep to orchard, you’ll be there in 30 minutes), Linvilla Orchards holds morning-to-sunset hours and free admission to its grounds. Pickers aren’t stuck with the usual Red Delicious or Gold Delicious varieties, either: Linvilla grows 25 apple types, ranging from giant Empires to a classic schoolyard McIntosh. The price is good, too, at $2.99 per pound.

An early bird in the apple-choice season (they start at the end of August), Solebury, detected in bucolic New Hope, hits that sweet spot for folks who can’t quite let go of summer (there’s a colorful neighboring flower garden you can frolic through) but are still in full-on apple-choice mode. Go on weekends for the hayride experience. And, if you’re an apple snob, watch the website to keep up with what diversities are being picked that weekend—lest you be stuck with a tarter or sweeter apple than you’re craving.

After Apple Picking

The last thing you might do when going apple choice is to pick an apple. Natalia Pavel, 38, spent six hours last month with her family at an orchard at Harvard, Ill. Apple’s choice occupied less than an hour of the picnic.

The administrative assistant from Des Plaines, Ill., said she spent most of the time trailing her 6-year-old niece as she bounced back and onward among the petting zoo, carousel and tractor transportations. “I couldn’t keep up with her,” Ms. Pavel said. Farmers say such “agritainment” has become important to draw in new visitors and make up for lost income away in a tough agricultural economy.

Youthfuler generations are staring for outdoor maturities,” said Peter Barton, owner of Barton Orchards in Poughquag, N.Y. The outdoor activity on which he founded his business 42 years ago—apple choice —isn’t cutting it. Mr. Barton recently strung up a three-hour obstacle course, including a zip line 40 feet off the ground, in a stand of sycamore, maple and black walnut trees. The farm also boasts a obsess house and it holds hot-air balloon festivals.

Apple Picking Season

Apple Picking Season

The last time he took his family to an orchard in New pastoral Hudson Valley, his two kids spent just a few minutes choice their usual selection of Jonagolds and Winesaps. They were exhausted from riding go-karts at the farm.

“That was all the kids wanted to do,” Mr. Van Dyke said. Now the 40-year-old Brooklyn high-school lecturer takes his family to a more bucolic orchard in New Jersey instead.

“We can go to an amusement park if we want to,” he said.

Mr. Van Dyke was battling mission creep at the nation’s apple orchards. Farmers who long relied on urbanites trekking out to pick fruit for a few weeks each fall are adding a widening array of non-apple-related components such as zip lines and yoga classes to grab the attention of the harried modern family.

Cooler temperatures, shorter days and pumpkin spice lattes are all right around the corner—and along with those comes the beloved apple season! Pennsylvania is one of the top apple-producing states in the country, and the Philadelphia-area is no exception. Throw on a sweater, pack up the kids and get ready to spend the day at one of the area’s best orchards. Read on for five of our favorites!

Apple Picking Long Island

Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, N.C., built a miniature railroad last fall, for kids to ride along with the farm in train cars resembling bees.

“People are looking for experience. They’re trying to get their children off their device and get some exercise,” said Lindsey Butler, co-owner of Sky Top, where her father-in-law planted the first fruit trees in 1967.

Erik Olson, owner of Weston Orchard and Vineyard north of Kansas City, Mo., said customers spend less time in his grove of 17,000 apple trees than on the 60-foot slide he recently built along its southern edge.

“It only takes 30 minutes to pick a sack of apples. They can learn a little bit about the farm and stay longer,” he said. “Every kid loves the tractor.”

Royal Oak Farm Orchard of Harvard, Ill., four years ago added a 2-mile maze on a 4-acre stand of trees that looks like a giant apple from above. Co-owner Paul Norton wanted to distinguish his place from competitors that have plowed mazes into cornfields.

Johnson’s is the feel-good family operation that keeps its options simple while executing them superbly. The farm grows 10 varieties of apples in total but go for the Fuji or Granny Smith varieties to make a grandma-approved apple pie (they start ripening in early October). You’ll pay $1.89 per pound. There are also harvest fests held every weekend throughout fall, for the complete family-fun experience of hayrides, corn mazes and, uniquely and somewhat bizarrely, gem mining.

How much does Apple picking cost?

That meant about $40 in transportation fare total, per person. Plus there’s the cost of the actual apple picking. Some farms offered apples and other produce by the pound ($1.20–$2.00), but others had a flat fee for an all-you-can-fill bag ($20–$25).

What is the best month to go apple picking?

Naturally, depending on where you live, there are different varieties of apples grown, and that are ripe at different times of the season. This next few weeks of September and the beginning of October is the best time to go for most of the U.S. and Canada though.

Where can I go to pick apples?

The 25 Top Places to Go Apple Picking Across America
  • Create lifelong memories during an apple-picking excursion at these superb orchards. …
  • Honey Pot Hill Orchards: Stow, Massachusetts. …
  • Los Rios Rancho: Oak Glen, California. …
  • Demarest Farms: Hillsdale, New Jersey. …
  • Mt. …
  • Mercier Orchards: Blue Ridge, Georgia. …
  • Alyson’s Orchard: Walpole, New Hampshire.