Apple Picking at Meadowbrook Orchards
When:
Sunday, Sep 01, 2024 8:00a -
Thursday, Oct 31, 2024 5:00p
Sunday, Sep 01, 2024 8:00a -
Thursday, Oct 31, 2024 5:00p
Where:
Meadowbrook Orchards
209 Chace Hill Rd
Sterling, MA
Admission:
$Varies
Categories:
Farms, Nature, Outside
Event website:
http://meadowbrookorchards.com/orchard/pick-your-own/
Pick Your Own
Meadowbrook Orchards has four varieties of apples (Cortland, Macintosh, Macoun, and Empire) available for Pick Your Own. In addition, we offer raspberries and blueberries for PYO in season.
The PYO exact dates vary each year. Here are the typical dates that each fruit is available:
- Apples: September – October
- Blueberries: July – early August
- Raspberries: July – September
When fruit is available, Meadowbrook Orchards is open for PYO every day from 8am to 5pm, except during bad weather.
To find out about picking conditions or cancellations due to weather, check our Facebook page or call 978-365-7617.
Guidelines for PYO
Please follow our picking rules so we can keep as many apples on the tree as possible for everyone to enjoy. Only pick those apples that you intend to purchase.
- Pre-purchased bags are required before entering the orchard.
- Please don’t pick more apples than fit into your bag. With your help, we’ll make sure more families can go apple picking this season.
- Don’t climb or shake the trees. Limbs break easily and the fruit will fall and bruise.
- Using one hand to hold the branch, use your forefinger and thumb to gently turn the fruit upward till it releases. (Pulling down will cause the other fruit to fall and destroy flower buds for next year’s crop.)
- Many labor-intensive hours go into the care of our fruit-bearing trees. If you accidentally drop any fruit on the ground, please make every effort to pick up that piece of fruit and place it in your bag, so the fruit isn’t wasted. If two or three fruits are clustered together, use two hands and gently pick all the fruit in the cluster.
- Fruit varieties mature at different times. Pick only the fruit that is ripe on the day that you’re picking. Those varieties will be posted at the registration tent where you pick up your bags. The trees all have different colored dots on the trunk to designate the variety.
- Please wear sturdy footwear.
- Be mindful of your cameras, keys, cell phones, etc., as these personal items are easily lost.
- Please dispose of all of your trash.
- We love well-behaved, socialized dogs, but please be sure they’re under your control at all times, or on leashes.
Our Varieties
The trees in the orchards each have a dot on the trunk of the tree, designating the variety of apple.
- White = Macintosh
- Green = Cortland
- Purple = Macoun
- Red = Red Delicious
