For the Labor Day weekend Fair Oaks Farms had a special promotion for their new apple orchard: free apples. I am not sure what kind of response Fair Oaks expected, but I suspect that the turnout was much larger than they anticipated.
The first stop on the way to the orchard was the orchard tent which was next to the Cowfé. In it people signed their name and got a bag for the apples. As you can see in the picture below, there was a line even for getting the bags.
People could then walk to the orchard, which is west of Pork Adventure building, or wait for a wagon ride. Because a lot of people were unsure of where the orchard was, they waited. Some of the people in the line had come from some distance. A family ahead of us in line was from Chicago.
The tractor and wagon stopped first at the corn maze. It was not free but cost $5. More than half of the people on our wagon got off for the maze. The tractor then backtracked to the orchard. We got off and watched a line of people who had finished picking get back on the wagon.
The orchard covers 40 acres and has eight different varieties of apples that mature from mid August to mid October. The
Gala apples were at the end of their season and people could pick that variety but the
Honeycrisp variety was the advertised variety for the day. You can learn about the varieties and their seasons on the
Fair Oaks Orchard webpage.
The trees are all dwarf trees and some near the edge had been heavily picked. We were told to wash our hands before picking (I am not sure why) and to avoid picking apples off the ground. There were a lot of apples on the ground.
The trees were small but seem to have borne a large crop this year.
Filling the bag did not take long. The orchard sells by the bag and I never did find out what the normal cost of the bag was.
Enjoy what is left of the Labor Day weekend.
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