APPLE PICKING AT PHILLIPS FARM


Each Monday Phillips Farms brings in a truckload of their freshly picked produce from rolling hills of Milford, New Jersey to showcase at Manhattan's Union Square Greenmarket. An impressive array of vegetables and fruits from leafy greens to apples, berries and pumpkins don their farm stand and attracts a large following of farmers market attendees.




This past weekend we had an opportunity to visit Phillips Farm in Northern New Jersey to learn more about their farming practices and pick a few apples from their orchard. In addition to being able to pick your own apples during the month of October, Phillips welcomes visitors to pick their own pumpkins. I was tempted to take this one home, but the nightmarish thought of hauling this humongous orange squash back to New York deterred me.


Over the summer, Phillips allows visitors to pick their own raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.



It's quite a delightful experience, especially for us kids who grew up in the city.



Since it is the peak of apple season, we walked through Phillips' expansive and marvelous apple orchard to survey the several varieties of apples growing.



It's such a wonderful experience to walk through these fields, taking in the picturesque, rustic country scenery and smelling the sweet fragrance of ripe apples in the air.



In addition to the hundreds of trees on the grounds, I was amazed by the proliferation of fruit on each and every apple tree. Many of the trees had long branches weighed down by the abundance of ready to pick fruit and it was not uncommon to see branches resting on the ground.


There were row after row of varying shades of green and red apples ready to pick including red delicious, golden delicious, fuji, gala, braeburn, honey crisp and macouns.


With so many apples weighing down the trees, several piles of loose apples surrounded the stumps, infusing into the air its own very sweet fragrance of fermenting fruit.

12 comments:

KennyT said...

I wish I could do something like this here in Hong Kong.

Elaine said...

Oh wow, that looks so beautiful!

Simply Life said...

So fun! I just went apple picking and will be posting about it soon! :)

Amanda said...

Looks like a beautiful farm, lovely photos!

chow and chatter said...

oh what a beautiful place nice to get out of the city once in a while lol

Fresh Local and Best said...

Thank Kenny, Elaine, Simply Life, Amanda and Rebecca for your kind comments. It was very nice to get out of the city!

ChefDruck said...

What gorgeous pictures. Those dewy red apples are just beautiful on the tree. I felt like I could taste them!

Karine said...

I love going the apple orchards. It is just so peaceful! I also love your pics :)

Nancy said...

Such beautiful photos! This brings back memories; I used to love apple picking at a local farm when I was growing up in NJ. My favorite part was having hot spiced apple cider and fresh cider donuts after we were done! Will have to get out of the city to do it again one of these days.

otehlia cassidy said...

I love apple season when you can get them right off the tree, or from the farmers...and for great prices. Looked like a beautiful day for apple picking!

Anonymous said...

Oooo;-D) That is wonderful! walking in a field full of apples YumYum!

XoXo.

Mardi Michels said...

That is so beautiful! We drive by a lot of orchards on the weekend and I was just loving the smells and sights!