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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.
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?
