Pick a Peck: Apple Picking!

Yesterday was such a perfect fall day here in New Brunswick. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, the leaves are gorgeous, and it’s a perfect cool temperature. The perfect day to be outside – apple picking!

I hadn’t been apple picking since grade school. I was so excited to go. We checked around, and found lots of orchards nearby. We decided that we’d go to one called Charlotte’s Family Orchard, in Gagetown. We chose it primarily because it has honey crisp apples – one of my favourite apples for eating. We bundled up and off we went for the afternoon, giddy like a couple of kids.

After about 40 minutes of driving, we arrive at our destination. It was a beautiful drive, to a beautiful spot in Gagetown. We drove past a lot of this:

To arrive here:

We picked up a hitch hiker along the way.

Once we got there, the real fun started. We loved every minute!

They have so many varieties of apples at Charlotte’s Family Orchard: honey crisp, russet, cortland, macintosh, jonagold, paula red, ginger gold – just to name a few. They also grow corn, plums, cherries, pears, and pumpkins. Each of the trees are marked with a coloured ribbon to let you know what kind of apple tree it is.

We chose our baskets and set off into the orchard. We wandered for a few minutes in awe before we got down to picking. We also stopped to admire the view at the end of the orchard:

Then we got to picking.

They were so delicious!

And HUGE!

Some of the good ones were so high up!

We had such a good time. I can’t wait to go again.

We brought home 10 lbs of honey crisp apples (at $1.50/lb!), and 10 lbs of various other apples, mostly cortlands (at $0.69/lb). Yeah, we have a lot of apples. I can’t wait to try a whole whack of new recipes to use them all.

We also came home with a big bag of fresh cranberries, and a 50 lb bag of buttercup squash. Yup, I’ll be looking for squash recipes too.

If you get a chance to visit a local apple orchard, and support a local farmer, I very highly recommend it. It was beautiful, rewarding, and such a good time. A great way to spend a fall afternoon.

To find out more about New Brunswick apples and apple growers, or where you can pick apples near you, visit www.applesnb.ca.