County Line Orchard

Time for our annual visit to County Line. Much has changed since my first visit here six or seven years ago. They are set up with huge paved parking lots, crowd control signage and four different price levels of admission. THe latest this year is a huge, I mean huge barn for special events up to 1500 people. It has been interesting to see the transition of this farm as visiting the source of apples and pumpkins has increased in popularity as a field trip and family outing ritual for the fall.

I have learned from experience to visit this destination in late afternoon on a weekday so that we are not competing with the field-trip crowds or the weekend chaos.

We skipped the gift shops, the moo-choo train, the kiddie farm and the corn mazes and paid only $1 per person (douwe and Karma free) and instead spent our money on the delicious but highly-priced homegrown and homemade produce.

First stop: after-school snack and bathroom break in the old new barn: Bought a gallon of cold cider on the food store side and brought it back to the concession side and used some dixie cups. Pumpkin and Apple Cider donuts, still warm, and Gabe chose a monstrous carmel apple dipped in chocolate chips.

Then the tractor/hayride to the pumpkin patch. This patch is a little bit sketchy as to its genuine-ness. There was a true pumpkin patch with small and underripe green pumpkins everywhere actually growing, but all the orange ones seemed "planted" throughout the field artificially. There were 8 full bins of pumpkins on skids next to the field, which seemed to be brought in from somewhere else. But we're still in a pumpkin patch and seeing how pumpkins grow, so what the heck. (We bought only one here, another stand down the street sells big ones for $3 and pie sized for $1).

Back on the hayride to the apple orchard. Many of the apple trees were loaded at toddler level with fruit so all ages were able to pick and sample an apple. This is an amazing orchard and the best asset of the farm, with so many varieties all labeled by rows and apples in abundance. Oh, the experience of biting into an apple that just came off a tree and is cold and crisp in the outdoor weather. Karma ate 2 or 3 before we made our way back to the car.

After our stop at the scale, we said hi to the honey bees in the field trip yurts and headed back to the car with no young-uns noticing the other kiddie attractions, they are kindly hidden away behind the barns. Well Gabe was a little disappointed to have to skip that huge corn maze he saw on the way to the pumpkin patch, but Grandpa promised him a corn maze experience another time this month.