FIND THE APPLE OF YOUR EYE,
Great fall apples make for perfect Bay State picking excursions
The strange weather we’ve had this summer — the rain, heat, then more rain with heat — comes with a silver lining. Fall apples are big, colorful and delicious. Top Bay State picking spots are ready for visitors.
“The rain was there at the right time for cell division, making the fruit bigger as well as sweeter,” said Andre Tougas, who operates Tougas Family Farm (tougasfamilyfarm.com) in Northboro.
Trees like to grow in sun and heat, he said, and apples love more moisture at certain points of their development. As apples soak up water and grow, they take on more sugar — in the form of starch — which translates to sweeter taste.
In addition, cooler nights — as seen in recent weeks — helps activate more color.
In other words, there’s a ton of low-hanging fruit out there.
Apple picking is a long-beloved New England tradition. After all, Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman was born in Leominster, meaning most orchards across the nation have ties to New England apples.
And then there’s the setting: In September, trees are still green and days can be crisp and cool or summerlike. As October nears, foliage colors burst, giving pickers a backdrop the rest of the world can only imagine.
Visit Massachusetts has a list of more than 20 spots in the Bay State to pick your own fruit (visit-massachusetts.com/state/pick-yourown-farms/). Some are quaint and simple; others are like an all-day fun center with mazes, food, music and more.
And while all are worth a visit, a few stand out.
Cider Hill Farm: This Amesbury farm (45 Fern Ave.), run by family for generations, has serious cred: Yelp just named them the top spot for apple picking in the entire country. They are hosting a toast to their Yelp top spot award on Sept. 15. You can RSVP for that event on their website, ciderhill.com.
While the farm has many kinds of fruit to pick (peaches, berries, corn and more when in season), their apple picking choices are plentiful. You’ll find more than 70 varieties of apples to pick across more than 10,000
fruit trees.
Those apples are particularly great this year, said Chelsea Martin of the farm.
Currently, she said, guests are picking true McIntoshes as well as Cortlands. Other types will come ripe over the coming weeks as well. All, she said, benefit from their setup.
“Forty percent of our land uphill from us is left as forest,” she explained. That forest provides rain runoff downhill to the tree groves, and the hill itself breaks the wind for those fruit-bearing trees.
Cider Hill offers something for everyone: a farm store, on-site bakery that’s very much their farm to your table, their own honey and jams for sale and, of course, daily cider doughnuts.
Those things — along with picking — are available seven days a week. Martin said with the Top spot designation, they may see crowds this year, so weekdays are a great choice.
Weekends do offer some extras, though. With free access to the property (but fees for picking), you can enjoy live music each Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. (“We showcase great local talent,” Martin said).
And each weekend they make things a little more fun for adults with their outdoor cider bar, a family-friendly spot where adults can savor farm-made hard cider whiles kids enjoy music, feed the 400 on-site hens, play in a sandbox and more.
They have a food truck of their own serving all weekend, as well as a classic concession stand where you’ll find fall festival staples like corn dogs and kettle corn.
They’re also adding a weekend outdoor market this year.
Tougas Family Farm: Tougas said they are “rolling into” prime apple picking season this week, with Crimson Crisps and early Fujis ready, and their famed Honey Crisps just about there.
They’ve added a new variety this year — the Ambrosia apple, a yellow apple with a pink blush, is sweet to eat, he said.
Tougas Farm ( 234 Ball St., Northboro) also offers great extras to savor there as well as at home, like ice cream, farm-made apple crisp (“It’s a must,” Tougas said), peach cobbler, caramel apples and cider doughnuts.
There’s also a barnyard with animals and a pumpkin patch, rounding out a day of picking well. Many of the pumpkins they grow, which come ready to pick beginning in mid-September, are rare and specialty pumpkins, he said.
Tougas is excited for this season, with fewer restrictions (but check their website, tougasfamilyfarm.com, for updates), The way the weather played out for apple growth, he said, the whole picking season should be sweet.