It’s apple-picking time in my home turf of central New York state.
Loads of folks gather up the kids or friends and get out there and get their own. Me? I’d rather select a bag or box that somebody else has already rounded up from the orchards.
Inviting spread in Oswego, N.Y.
My dear wife Karen and I took a trip to Ontario Orchards, in fact, to buy some apples and apple pie, too. It was my first trip to this grand place in Oswego, N.Y., a place she’s visited in autumns past with our friend Michelle. I wrote about it for my Mark It Up community column for Syracuse Public Media site waer.org. You can read my piece and check out more photos by clicking the link below.
http://waer.org/post/ontarios-orchards-you-can-find-your-pick-more-apples#stream/0
Hover over any gallery photo for a description. Clock on the bottom right photo of any gallery for an enlarged slide show.
The owners have offered so much to their neighbors some 30 miles northwest of Syracuse for more than half a century. Nowadays, there’s a nursery on the grounds and a guy who parks his barbecue truck to sell his tasty food from under a tent. Donnie Alecci also works for the local Ashley Lynn Winery, and stocks their bottles next to his food.
Inside the Ontario Orchards Market, I found my sugar-free apple pie. Karen found her regular variety. We bought apples enough for our fridge and to share with Good Neighbor Tim and his Wonderful Wife Lorraine.
And we walked the aisles to discover so much more. Ontario Orchards favors local products. Nice. Very.
This was a Sunday to welcome a change of seasons in our part of the world.
Good picking, my dear wife.
Do you pick-your-own, and if so, do you have a story to share? What are some of your favorite local products, and why? Which is your favorite photo, and why?
Mark Bialczak 
Just love apples!
And by the way, yesterday was National Apple day here in Sweden! ( and “smågodis” dagen- candy day! )
Have a nice weekend and say hi to Karen!
/a
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I hope you had a candy apple to celebrate, Anna! That would be perfect for the combine apple and smagodis dagen day. Have a great weekend, my Stockholm friend. Karen has to work overtime today and Sunday. 😦
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Mark- I had to much smågodis all weekend long!!! But I just cant stop once I start!
have a great day!
kram
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Have a great Monday, Anna Kram. 😉
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kram right back at you! 😉
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There’s a cool town here with a lot of antique and craft shops. They have a vintage apple mill there which is very cool. I miss when we went there when I was a kid and they made apple cider and cider doughnuts on the site.
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Yum, Rose. Good trip for a kid. And an adult. Go back!
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Now I’m hungry! And you always have such great photos too.
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Thanks, Stuart. What a great place that is to take pictures with an iPhone!
I’d share the pie and the bag of apples with you, gladly. We had enough of both to go around.
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I love pie!
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Join the club. 🙂
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I really enjoy stopping at these kind of markets MBM. I love the freshness. And the unexpected varieties and treats the locals create.
And I love a neighbor who is thoughtful for their other neighbors. ❤
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Good Neighbor Tim and I help each other out every which way we can, MBC. 🙂
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It’s the best way to be MBM ❤
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I READ ONTARIO AND THOUGHT YOU WERE IN CANADA!!
Apples are my fave fruit Mark. I eat one almost every day in hopes of keeping the doctor away – seriously!
It’s so Mark-like that you picked up enough apples to give some to your neighbours – love that about you guys! ❤
Diana xo
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This county is called Ontario because it sits on the other side of the Great Lake that we share with your nation, Diana. Lake Ontario’s shore is in the city of Oswego, which gets, oh, twice as much snow as Syracuse because of nature’s lake effect moisture-feeding mechanism. And Syracuse gets a lot of snow. 🙂
Thank you for your kind words, my dear friend. ❤
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We used to have the best plum trees when l was at school.. So many plums it was impossible to eat them all. My fruit-tree growing endeavors in Sydney have been unsuccessful. Even the thriving lemon tree when we moved in has sadly shriveled up. No green fingers have I.
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Oh, no, Vonita! I think it must be the climate and soil, not your fingers. 🙂
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It was thriving when we moved in, it probably got watered more.
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we’ve done apples, strawberries and blueberries and pumpkins. i’d love to do more – always have fun at those places,it’s impossible to be crabby. and i love riding a hayride to get out to a field!
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Hayrides! That’s a great fall topic in its own right, Beth. 🙂 Yeeeeee-haw.
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A post that’s as delicious as an apple, Mark.
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Thank you for your crisp and fresh comment, Ann.
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Sounds like a fun time. The folks on TV keep talking about going to apple orchards and the wonderful smell and something about apple cider donuts, which I’ve never seen. We don’t have apple orchards here, so I’m a bit envious.
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Apple cider donuts are popular here, yes they are, Kerbey. Too bad you don’t have them down in the torrid hot Austin area. 😦
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We picked apples every Fall growing up in PA. It was a family ritual that always left us full, scratched up from climbing in the trees (against the rules), and with a bit of a belly ache. So worth it. ☺
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So you’re a tree climber, Van. Tsk, tsk. No waiting for the best ones to fall fo you, hey? 😉
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☺ Story of my life. ☺
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Someday I’ll get to apple country and see fruit on the tree. Bet it smells good, too
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You bet, mouse. It smells so fresh.
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I have apple trees, so I do indeed pick my own. This year did not yield a bumper crop though, so I will need to supplement if I am to bake pies like mad, as I tend to do. I really need to deal with the pruning…
I like the nursery photo best, because well, you know how I love plants and stuff 🙂
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Yes, I mentally had you down for the nursery photo, Joey. I hope you bake pies like mad because it sounds like a chore that makes every dang one in the family happy!
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I’ve picked berries in the past, but never apples. I do like to buy them from local farms stands though. I made lots of applesauce last year for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah–actually because I asked my husband to pick up some apples for me at a stand, and he didn’t know how much I needed, so he came in with a huge amount. 🙂 I also love apple pie and apple crisp!
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All things apple at this time of year, and the fact that you made them, Merril, bonus points! Yum.
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Apples are a sore spot with me at the moment. I’m trying to find someone to go with me on an upcoming blogger meet-and-greet here in Buffalo, but they all tell me they’re going apple picking that day. They won’t accept my offer to go to the store and buy them a bushel o apples just so they can then go to lunch/dinner with me. Its so hard being unpopular.
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Yikes! The bushels from a farm stand would taste the same. I’m with you. Blogger company is more important, CM.
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Apples. Mmmm. I think they are the world’s most delicious fruit. But I may be a bit prejudiced. My mom used to make apple pie every rainy Sunday afternoon. Glad it rains in Washington State. As they say in the mid-west, “Apple pie without the cheese is like the kiss without the squeeze”.
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Ha! Between the apples and cheese and kissin’ and squeeze, that explains why your gravatar picture fairly glows Fannie. 😀
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LOL. Thanks, Paul!
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Well no wonder there are big families in the Mid-west with that lovely saying, Tracy. Haha. Love it.
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I adore Honey Crisps
!
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They’re really tasty, Anne T!
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I just bought 4 large ones @$2 a piece! Ouch, I need to go pick some if they are still available!
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In case you missed this!
http://talesalongtheway.com/2015/09/24/from-denied-admittance-to-world-championship-site-in-five-years/
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And yeah, the big daily and web site here are covering it really well.
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Very exciting time!!
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Do you know the Lacrosse score?
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I’ve never gone picking for any sort of fruit or vegetable though it sounds like fun, and good exercise. Really like the look of the shop, very quaint. It’s hard to pick a favorite but it would definitely be amongst the ones of the interior of the shop.
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It’s old-timey inside that store, Marissa. Hand-placed, and loved, all of the produce and products. You’d like it, I think.
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I’m sure I would. It looks terrific.
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Ahhh, the sounds and smells of Fall – love apple season. It is great to see stores selling local products. It has been a lot of years since I’ve been apple picking but when I was young we used to go out a number of times each season. My Mum and Nan used to make apple jam and apple pies (to freeze) and apple crumble, etc. I always got an apple in my lunch but I usually traded it for other things at school. 🙂
Fun posts Mark.
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Trading at lunch for other things! Now that’s the spirit, Paul. I want to see a post about that someday, my friend. A writing challenge I think you’d have fun with, so to speak.
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Love apples I have made homemade applesauce, spiced apple rings, several apple crumb pies! Woo Hoo. Gatorette.
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Of course YOU have, Gatorette! 🙂 You are a kitchen master. Love it.
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Ah no a large family!!! LOL
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Wish we had more like this, Mark. Our places are either small – just pick some apples and leave, or big – feels like all the produce has been trucked in from someplace else. Not too much in the middle.
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You know our area is made for this kind of thing, Scott. More and more, anyway. Have a great fall with your three growing guys!
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I don’t grow my own, but my mother does. She always makes the best apple crumble! 🍎
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Oh, wow, Amada. Apple crumble with homegrown apples sounds simply outstanding! 🙂
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It really is! Especially with custard 🙂
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