Let me clarify that this was not our first trip to the rodeo a fruit farm. We went to Iron’s Fruit Farm last Fall and got to do a hay ride and the whole pick-your-own pumpkin thing…but, no apple picking. When I found out we were moving to Ohio, I decided that I really wanted to go apple picking (because that’s what you do when you live out in the country, right?), but me being the naive Californian that I am, didn’t realize that apple picking actually happens in late August and September and is over by October. I didn’t even start looking into it until October. Sooo, I vowed that we would go apple picking this year darnit!
Unfortunately, Southwest Ohio had a pretty rough Winter and Spring (ice storms, colder temperatures than normal, and A LOT of rain in the Spring) which left a lot of the fruit farms in the area without a crop. Sad face. For the farms and for me. Apparently, too much rain means no bees, which leads to not enough pollination. After calling around to a few different farms and sending out a call on Facebook to anyone that knew of a farm that was going to have apple picking this year, my friend, Erin, found one for me! Oh, happy day! Hidden Valley Fruit Farm was going to have apple picking on one day only and only for a few hours at that. Luckily for me, it was when Dane’s parents were visiting and we were able to go. (Yes, this was waaay back in September.)
The farm was very quaint and the store had a bunch of yummy treats that you could buy along with fresh fruit. Take note of the creepy vampire Halloween decoration.
Here’s some random shots that I took around the main store.
One of my favorite things was this poster…awesometown.
If that doesn’t make you want to eat apples, I don’t know what does.
The cost to pick-your-own apples was $15 for a peck. I thought it was a little pricey, but the girl assured us that a peck is a lot of apples. So, we took our peck sized bag and took a drive to the apple orchard.
Dane get’s an A++ for effort.
The apples actually looked a lot like red potatoes. They weren’t shiny and most were slightly odd shaped. They were also a lot smaller than I have envisioned. Nothing like those wax covered guys you find in the grocery store.
Dane gave me a lift…like I said, A++.
Sadly, all of those pictures were just for show. We didn’t get there until the very end of the few hours allotted and the trees were pretty picked over. The apples that you can see on the trees were either rotten or bug eaten. In the farm’s defense, we saw people walking out of the area just before us with a whole peck filled with apples. Chalk it up to bad timing on our part. We left the orchard with only one apple.
On the drive back to the main store, we had the pleasure of meeting Jebidiah and Arthur…at least that’s what we named them. They reminded me of the movie Twins. You know, the one with the Governator and Danny DeVito? Awesome flick, btw.
I loved this cute little covered bridge…very picturesque.
Don’t worry (I know you were), all was not lost. When we got to the main store, we explained to the owner (a very nice woman) that we were only able to find one apple worth picking. She apologized and explained that it had been a tough year for the apple crop. We asked if we could exchange the cost of the peck for merchandise in the store and we walked away with some pretty yummy stuff including my one prized apple that I picked along with a bag of yummy apples they were selling.
There’s one thing I can check off the bucket list! It wasn’t exactly what I had dreamed apple picking to be, but we still had a good time and made some memories. That’s what life is really all about, right?
Anyone have a good experience with apple picking this year? How ’bout a good old fashioned corn maze and hay ride?
