Apple Picking

I spent my Columbus Day holiday trying something new. I went apple picking at Honey-Pot Hill Orchard in Stow, MA. It was a date, but due to a policy similar the Bush Administration’s policy against discussing ongoing investigations that’s all I have to say on that. The orchard opened at 10pm and we got there soon after, which was a good thing. The place filled up fast, the parking lot was full by the time we doubled back around to it ~45 minutes later.

It was the last day of the season at this Orchard. We had heard that the pickings were slim at two other orchards that friends had gone to on Saturday, so we were surprised to find a wealth of Red Delicious apples immediately on the right side of the entrance. The pickings were great there, and we threw two in the bag and each had one. Eating on the spot is how one reduces the cost of apple picking down to near the cost of buying apples in the store, since you can only carry out what will fit in the bag and the bags aren’t cheap. Although, given apples’ status as not even my third favorite fruit (Pears, Peaches, and Strawberries all certainly top apples), a full bag would be too many. But it was still a good deal; there was some sort of $4 discount because it was the last day of the season and pickings were slim. We didn’t know what they were talking about, as there seemed to be plenty of apples.

Then we found out, as we moved beyond the close grove of Red Delicious into a grove of Macintosh Apples. The pickings there were much more slim. There weren’t any at arm reach. I got a few by jumping, and one or two by climbing the tree, which was fun. I really should climb trees more often. Perhaps that is what I should do from now on when there is a nice day without enough wind to fly the kite. We later found that there were some more plentiful Macintosh trees on the other side of the Orchard. There were also many Empire apples in another area. Empires, I think, are the quintessential apple for the teacher type. All in all I think we got six or seven different varieties.

Done with apple picking we tried out the hedge maze, which was amazingly enough actually tall enough for us. The tops of the hedges were maybe two feet above my head. However, the hedges were a little thin at times, and it cost $3 a person. I felt a little like one of the patrons at a Roller Coaster Tycoon park, being charged for everything. The cost of the hedge maze was offset by the $0.70 apple cider doughnuts. They were good, but would have been better had we opted for the cinnamon and sugar topping. By now it was almost noon and the place was packed, to the point of it being more than a bit difficult to walk around without running over some small child. Having, more apples in our bag than I’ve eaten in the past year we decided that was enough.

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