A Rendezvous with Sneakers

catskills

As my Aussie side kick’s last day in upstate New York, unsure of what other activity we could do to show her the splendor of the state, and pretty sure she would not go on another bike ride with me ever again (let’s just say my idea of a “short ride” is not really a “short ride” to non-cyclists, and our last ride was a bit lengthy), I decided to bring her apple picking. It had been a horrible week, and I needed something fun. What’s more therapeutic than picking apples off trees? Plus, my side kick  had never picked an apple off a tree, and the only places I have picked apples are from a large bin in the grocery store, so this was the perfect late Sunday afternoon activity.

I mentioned a couple of the farms that are in the area in a post already, and after some contemplation, decided to go to Grieg’s Farm in Red Hook–where I had picked blueberries and raspberries in the summer. Picking your own fruit takes “supporting your local agricultural community” to a whole different level.

apple tree

We drove to the farm, which is open on weekends until 6pm (great for when you wake up at 4pm), and found just what we were expecting: apples on trees! You could also pick your own pumpkins and autumn raspberries–I still do not know the difference between summer and fall raspberries. I thought a raspberry was a raspberry. I guess I was wrong.

The farm was quite busy with other families thinking a day at the farm was a nice Sunday afternoon activity, but not overly crowded. We grabbed our bags and started picking. Unfortunately, my knowledge of apples consists of what color they are, and if they are sour or not, so when Danielle asked which type was best to pick, I was useless. We decided simply to pick a mixture.

Eating the forbidden fruit

After trying the apples out (quite tasty) and with more apples than needed, we went to the raspberry bushes and started picking autumn raspberries for a while. I think we ended up eating more than we actually brought back. Personally, nothing beats blueberries, but any berry is tasty, especially when right off the bush.

Then, we went on to the pumpkin patch. Since Danielle had picked a pumpkin before, and I picked mini ones in my back yard, we decided to skip the pumpkin picking and head back with our fresh goodies.

pumpkins pumpkins everywhere

Long story short, it was a fun afternoon, and I have a feeling my kitchen will be overflowing with apple pies and other apple creations in the near future.