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Who loves any excuse to visit orchards?  How about apple orchards in New York?  Talk about the perfect Fall family activity near The City!  Today, friends, is an entirely new day to celebrate….It’s National Johnny Appleseed Day.  Grab your Granny Smith or your Honeycrisp, and let’s plan a day of apple picking near New York City!

First Published: September 26, 2018 Last Updated: July 7, 2020

 

 

Orchards in New York

Fall is the perfect season for apple picking!  And, there are many farms and orchards in New York to visit!  The most likely scenario for most New York City families would be an easy day-trip outside the city to gather apples.  My criteria:  Have to be able to ride the train from Grand Central or Penn Station there.  A bus ride is fine too.

Here are four orchards in New York that are a short drive or train ride or bus ride from The City.

 

a hand holding a red apple in orchards

 

 

Apple Orchard with apples on branches and ladders leaning on trees

 

Harvest Moon Farm and Orchard

Tips for Visiting:

  • Harvest Moon Farm and Orchard is located in North Salem, NY.
  • Open every day 8:00am-6:00 pm through the end of October.
  • Apple Picking and Pumpkin Picking
  • Cider donuts, pies, face-painting, pony rides, and many other special seasonal activities.

 

Apple Dave’s Orchard

Tips for Visiting:

  • Apple Dave’s Orchard is located in Warwick, NY.
  • Open daily from 9:00-5:00, August 31-October 27.
  • Apple Picking of several varieties, including Macintosh, Cortland, Honeycrisp, Gala, Empire, Jonagold, Rome Beauty, Red Delicious, Macoun, Fuji and Golden Delicious apples.
  • Live music, a Distillery, Hay Rides, Puppet Shows and many other special family-friendly activities.

 

Masker Orchards

Tips for Visiting:

  • Masker Orchards is located in Warwick, NY.
  • Open daily from 9:00-5:00 starting on August 31.
  • Parking and Admission is FREE!
  • Pony Rides, Haunted House, and Live Music make this family apple picking outing special!

 

Apple Ridge Orchards

Tips for Visiting:

  • Apple Ridge Orchards is located in Warwick, NY.
  • Open daily beginning August 31.  The Pumpkin Patch opens September 14.
  • Hay Rides, a petting zoo, and a corn field make this the perfect destination during apple picking season.

 

 

Hundreds of red apples in a crate in an apple orchard

 

 

The Orchard King: Johnny Appleseed

Per usual, I gotta do a lil’ educating!  While you are traveling to one of these wonderful orchards, take a minute to review your 3rd Grade Johnny Appleseed Day facts.

 

Johnny Appleseed Facts

  • According to an article written by Natasha Geiling for Smithsonian.com, “On a family farm in Nova, Ohio, grows a very special apple tree; by some claims, the 175 year old tree is the last physical evidence of John Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed, a prolific nurseryman who, throughout the early 1800s, planted acres upon acres of apple orchards along America’s western frontier, which at the time was anything on the other side of Pennsylvania.
  • Today, Chapman is known by another name—Johnny Appleseed.  The apples that Chapman brought to the frontier were completely distinct from the apples available at any modern grocery store or farmers’ market, and they weren’t primarily used for eating—they were used to make America’s beverage-of-choice at the time, hard apple cider.”

 

Totally different from my recollection from the 1948 Melody Time version.  #thanksDisney

 

Apples with three glasses full of apple cider from orchards

 

  • “Like the caricature that has survived to modern-day, Chapman really did tote a bag full of apple seeds. As a member of the Swedenborgian Church, whose belief system explicitly forbade grafting (which they believed caused plants to suffer), Chapman planted all of his orchards from seed, meaning his apples were, for the most part, unfit for eating.”

 

two wood barrels in an orchard full of apples

 

And, in honor of Johnny Appleseed Day, I’m not ashamed to share a Bucket List Travel Dream of mine….to pick apples in a real orchard.  Apples that are edible.  My fantasy does not include me with a pot on my head, just FYI.

All my Yankee friends are laughing at me heartily right now.  They have been picking apples their entire lives, and are probably totally over it.  But, for my readers West of the Mason-Dixon line…don’t you want to go???

P.S.  Live in NYC and still need family-friendly activities for your little ones?  I suggest an outing to the NYC Transit Museum, located in Brooklyn.  Or, spend time at the NYC Fire Museum, located in SoHo.  Bring an apple for a snack, and you’v come full circle!

 

 

 

 

a woman in a blue dress with text overlay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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