We will be doing pick-your-own (PYO) the weekends of October 3-4 and 10-11. Hours will be 11am-5pm on both days. Bring family, friends, and your camera, and feel free to pack a lunch and a picnic blanket, or use our picnic tables. We’ll have a few fun activities set up for kids, including slingshots for dropped apples, bouncy balls, and bag toss. Sorry, no pets or tree-climbing allowed, and no public bathroom available. Note that PYO parking is available from the Middle Street farm entrance about 100 yards north from the Bay Road intersection, not at the farmstand location on Bay Road (GPS works if you plug in 579 Middle Street).
Liberty, Empire, Spigold, Mutsu, Jonagold, and Spencer are all nice and ripe and there are some tasty Macoun and Cortland hanging on. Golden Delicious will be great if they have a nice blush. Ida Red is just getting there. We’ll provide half-peck and peck bags (or bushel boxes if you need them) and some tips on picking. Because our EBT processing is down, we are offering half-price on PYO for SNAP participants.
If you’re looking for other varieties (McIntosh, Cortland, Davey) or Asian pears, try the farmstand. You’ll also find fresh-pressed apple and apple-pear cider, cider slushies, raspberries (while they last), apple butter, and honey. If you are doing PYO, it’ a short walk to the farmstand from that parking area. If you don’t have time to pick, you can pull into the farmstand driveway at 416 Bay Road and take a few minutes to shop. We take all forms of payment.
And a reminder, we grow using OMRI-approved materials, but are not certified organic, and we did make a single exception this year to use a synthetic plant growth regulator only on Asian pears to try to save the crop after an April frost. This is not an easy way to grow fruit in New England, and you will see signs of disease or insect damage on some fruit. Some affected fruit are still sound enough to use for cider, so we’ll provide information about how you can get the fruit you want while reducing food waste and helping with the cider season.
