Outside the store at Pine Hill Orchards
No country experience satisfies like picking apples in the fall, especially when it’s followed by pies, soufflés, pancakes and every other sort of apple delight. In Charlemont we’re favored with four orchards in three nearby towns, Shelburne, Colrain, and Ashfield, and they all offer “Pick-Your-Own," from mid-September through late October. Two orchards sit close together just over the Shelburne line as you drive west from Greenfield on Route 2. Many years ago, the Peck family owned these and more; consequently, you’ll find your first orchard on Peckville Road, which meets Route 2 just where it makes a sharp left at the top of the rise coming out of Greenfield. Apex--turn right on Peckville Rd--has a new store selling cider, apples, peaches, honey, beeswax products, and other items. You can pick your own Macs, Cortlands, Gala, and Honey Crisps at any time during the week and enjoy tractor rides out to the orchard on weekends. Apex also features spectacular views from which one can see all the way to Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire.
Apex' Cortlands, ready for picking
Hager's orchard in bloom
The second Peck orchard is owned today by the Hager family, which has a thriving Farm Market right on Route 2, just up from Peckville Road. The store is open year round, offering locally grown vegetables, frozen meat from the Hager farm, home canned goods, baked goods, breakfast, lunch and ice cream! The orchard faces Route 2, and U-Pick is available every day.
Pine Hill Orchards offers tractor rides to the trees ready for picking.
Turn right on the next road, Colrain-Shelburne, and follow it into Colrain, where it becomes Greenfield Road. Up a few miles is Pine Hill Orchards' farm store and restaurant, which are open every day. U-Pick is also available every day for those who don't mind walking out to the orchard, but tractor rides to the orchard are offered on weekends. Pickers have a wide variety of apples to choose from: Jonagold, Delicious, Spencers, as well as Macs and Cortlands. In addition to a great breakfast (see Breakfast Along the Mohawk Trail), Pine Hill has a beautiful pond, picnic tables, and a small petting zoo. Cider from Pine Hill’s substantial cider mill is sold out of its spacious cooling room in the farm store, where visitors will find peaches in season and an array of apples, including Honey Crisp.
Bear Swamp Orchard in Ashfield is further afield for people willing to go out of their way for organic products. Bear Swamp offers U-pick from 11-5 on weekends, but the orchard is small, so go early in the season. For sale in their tiny farm store, Bear Swamp offers their own delicious organic cider, soft and hard, along with organic apples, pears, and peaches in season. To reach Bear Swamp Orchard, take Route 112 south to Ashfield and turn right on Hawley Road (the other side of Route 116 East). Beautiful views from the farm are a bonus, as are the many hiking trails in the Bear Swamp Reservation, half a mile back on Hawley Road.
Check millbrookhouserecipes.com for apple recipes.
You can also find Apex Orchards, Bear Swamp Orchard, Pine Hill Orchards, and Hager's Farm Market on Facebook.
Bear Swamp's traditional harvesting ladder