Sunday, September 19, 2010

Sunday Night Special: Apple Picking

Apple pickin'

It's fall in New England, which means it's time for cider doughnuts. The thing about cider doughnuts is that they're best hot and fresh from the farm where the cider is pressed, so in order to get cider doughnuts, you have to go to an apple orchard. While you're there, you might as well pick some apples.

We like Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, MA, though this year we arrived a week too late to pick peaches - it's been such a warm season in New England that every crop is about two weeks early this year, which means they also finish two weeks early! Cider Hill has five apple orchards with several different varieties of apple grown in each orchard. We got Cortlands, Galas, a few Macintosh and some Honeycrisps (my favorite for plain old eating) and then we grabbed a few Fortunes, a new variety. As you can see from my ridiculous expression below, I was pretty shocked by how enormous the Fortune apple is.

Apple the size of my head!

Thanks to Adam for letting me climb on his shoulders to pick the ripe ones, and thanks to Julia for taking pictures! So is there an apple picking tradition near where you live? Do you have a favorite orchard? What's your favorite kind of apple?

5 comments:

  1. :boggle: That's an apple big enough to concuss the unwary!

    My favorites are Macouns, though I'll try just about any apple that looks odd or has a funny name.

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  2. apples!! can't wait to go picking :) my fav eating are honeycrisp and macouns!

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  3. I am ALSO a big Honeycrisp fan. I am Also also a HUGE fan of the adorableness of the photos. You atop the shoulders of Adam, grabbing apples from a tree. I could go all biblical (and who doesn't love a great story?) but hell, this is just too darn cute. LOVE IT!

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  4. Cider Hill is my absolute favorite! Sadly now that I am living in Chicago I can no longer go but I've yet to find and orchard that rivals it. The views from the top of the hill are awesome and the fact they serve up their apple cider donuts fresh is key.

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