Our boys have been begging us to go apple picking for a few weeks now so Sunday after church we ventured out west of the DC area to Stribling Orchards. It is about a 40 minute ride for us from our home and as an added bonus, only 15 minutes from my parents house. Of course, they were also begging to stop by Grammy & Grandpa's following the adventure as well. Last year, I was able to squeeze in a field trip with our middle son to Stribling so I was aware of how wonderful this orchard is for picking apples.
They were picking four varieties of apples: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Macintosh, & Grimes Golden. What I love about this orchard is the the numbered map with locations of trees, the color coded tree trunks and the ability to drive right up into the orchard area to pick.
They also provide the long handled apple pickers which come in handy for all those ripe apples way up on the top of the trees.
All three boys got into the action and enjoyed sampling the apples along the way: my favorite is definitely the Macintosh but the boys loved the Golden Delicious!
Stribling has a great area for picnics so you can easily bring your own and enjoy the afternoon. They also have a wonderful bakery full of apple bread, turnovers, pies and donuts! They also sell local honey, butter, wine and peanuts! During the weekends, they have a snack shack open selling hot dogs/hamburgers and a variety of other food and drink. Caramel apples were $4.00 and apple cider was $1.50. The views of the Shenandoah Mountains are beautiful and you can see the leaves just beginning to turn a little.
We ended up picking a 1/2 bushel and a peck full of apples (cheaper than weighing by the pound). Now to figure out what to do with all these yummy apples?
~Ila~
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