This post is…very late. But, better late than never?! We went apple picking at Applecrest Farm Orchards in Hampton, New Hampshire this past September and had a blast! And probably some of the best apples we’ve ever tasted, honestly…
Applecrest Farm runs a fall Harvest Festival nearly every weekend during apple picking season (confirm dates on their website for next year if you’re looking for a new apple picking spot). The festival includes live music, corn mazes, and more activities for the whole family along with the farm’s regular Pick Your Own offerings, the market, hot cider donuts, and more.
Without having kids with us, we didn’t do too much of the additional festival offerings, but we loved apple picking here! To get to the orchards, you take a short tractor ride which I think is always a fun fall activity. Then once there, the staff share where you can find each type of apples and what they are best used for and you can get to picking.
I don’t know what it was about these apples (I believe we picked all Macintosh) but they were probably the best apples we’ve ever had. I’m actually allergic to apples, (oral allergy syndrome, it’s not life threatening or anything serious, my mouth just gets itchy) and these apples were so good that I ate probably one a day or so when we brought them home regardless of getting the itchies. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever finished a whole bag of apples from apple picking before, but we did this time. Even if you don’t have the time to go apple picking, I would stop in the shop at Applecrest just to pick up some apples!
After picking, we took the tractor ride back and got some apple cider donuts. The line was long for a weekend during the festival but it moved pretty quickly and was so worth it for hot apple cider donuts. They make them right there and pretty continuously throughout the day, so you can plan on hot, delicious donuts. Then, we picked up a couple of pumpkins and headed home for the day.
If you are looking for some traditional New England fall activities, I would definitely check out Applecrest Orchards- Wherever you are visiting, or if you are local they are pretty centrally located in Hampton, NH, and if you needed to travel a bit to get there you could easily plan other fall events nearby. For us, this was a solid day trip and we can’t wait to go back next year!