When Apple Picking is Worth the Bedtime Battle

Temperatures finally dip below 60 degrees, and I find myself in overalls heading to the orchards. It’s practically a reflex. Luckily, there are a ton of beautiful farms within an hour or two—and so, we grab our bushel basket, our sweaters, and go.

This week, we went to Fishkill Farms, just an hour north of Hastings on Hudson (an hour and a half from Brooklyn), which made it a perfect spot to meet our friends.

We ate amazingly spiced, pumpkin ice cream, which I couldn’t help imagining on warm apple pie. The kids each chose hilariously shaped gourds, and we each picked a ghost white pumpkin we hope to paint later this week.

The farm store had an excellent selection of arugula, chard, radishes, and other veg that all tastes amazing.

I grabbed a hot apple cider, sat at the picnic tables that look over the Valley in all its blazing color, while a fantastic jazz band played classics—surrounded by hay bales where the children sat, climbed and danced.

After we had our fill (there were also donuts, grilled corn, mac and cheese, and more) it was time to hop on our hay ride to the orchard. We picked Macouns, Honeycrisps, and found a few MacIntosh others’ had missed.

Of course there was the corn maze, which my kids managed to escape long before I could figure it out. We ran through the tall stalks, I pretending not to freak out while they laughed and ran off.

It was one of those days, that was just perfect and was totally worth the bedtime battle. It was so great, that we might just do it all again next weekend.