If you've never taken the fam apple picking before, you don't know what you're missing! Here are 10 tips to help your outing go smoothly:

Before You Go

1. Plan your trip. Use our Fall Festivals, Pumpkin Patches, and Apple Picking Guide to choose an orchard.

2. Pack snacks and activities for the road trip – arrive all smiles and ready for fun at the orchard.

3. Bring your camera and read Lorraine’s style tips on how to coordinate for family photos.

4. Bring a canvas tote for apples – a soft carry bag helps to avoid damage to your apples.

While You're There

5. Ask your farmer what’s ripe. You’ll find the tastiest fruit this way!

6. Choose firm, bruise-free apples. Apples should be firm and crisp without damage to the skin or indentation.

7. Know your varietal. Are you making applesauce? Baking? Eating them raw? Choose your apples based on your cooking and eating needs.

8. Simply remove your apple off the tree with a gentle tug. The small stems help to preserve the apples as well. Apples on the outside of the tree with ripen before the inside. Don’t shake branches – this causes damages to the farmer's product and food waste.

Once You Get Home

9. Gently wash your apples.

10. Store them in a cool place.

Enjoy the apples, your photographs and best of all the fall memories!

 

Written by Lovedy Carroll

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