Autumn Apple Picking

8 reasons that autumn beats all the other seasons:

1. Fall Fashion Week
2. Fall fashion! Finally we can all start wearing REAL clothes!
3. Blue skies, sunshine, and a tiny nip in the air
4. Fall foliage
5. Apple picking!
6. Cider and cider apple doughnuts
7. NYC Marathon
8. Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes

Lucky for me, some friends and I hit numbers five and six last weekend with a trip to Fishkill Farms, NY. While the name isn’t exactly romantic (thank the Dutch for that), Fishkill is my number one beautiful place to enjoy autumn and go apple picking.

One of our friends, whom I’ll dub “Mr Shiba”

The orchards are extensive and the fruit mostly organic and ecologically farmed. On the weekends they have food stands and a local band, plus a farm shop where you can pick up fresh local veggies, fruits and eggs. And if that doesn’t keep your attention, they also have a pumpkin patch, bunnies, and a working pasture-raised chicken farm! The chickens impressed me the most because they use the mobile coop method, letting the chickens naturally graze on a section of land before moving them to a new patch while the old one grows back. It actually made me feel okay about eating chickens.

But enough about chickens–I bet you want to hear about the cider doughnuts!

Freshly made right in front of you and the perfect balance of crispy doughy goodness–these are the best of the best. I would even hazard to call them Life Changing Cider Doughnuts. There is no equal for the mouth texture and cinnamon apple flavor.

Nom nom nom

Fueled by carbs and sugar, we took a stroll to the orchards next. I was so impressed with Fishkill’s breadth of varieties; we must have grabbed at least a half dozen each of Macoun, Golden Delicious, Spartan, Empire and Mutsu. I’m so excited to start baking with them this weekend. Get ready for some apple recipe posts! Apple muffins, apple cake, apple pie, apple butter …

Last note on apple picking … This whole thing works better when you have a nice, strong man around to carry the apples for you. Thanks, Mr Kitchen!

Mr Shiba and Mr Kitchen: The Irishman and the Lost Urbanite.

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Fishkill Farms
9 Fishkill Farm Road
Hopewell JCT, NY 12533