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YES! Went down the road to Russell Orchards in Ipswich, MA for apples off the tree, cider donuts and cider!

I've been blessed to be gleaning on the farms and orchards at MSU for our local foodbank. We've had a great time and have harvested a record 255,000 lbs. of JUST apples for 2009.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegardenproject/sets/72157610648395852/

We went to an apple orchard here and were sorely disappointed. The harvests in Nebraska were rather dismal due to the early frost/snowfall. Most orchards were shut down the 2nd to last week in October I think.

I'm from Texas so naturally the whole concept of autumn is still totally thrilling to me. I've been living in the Iowa now for some years and I absolutely love apple picking! My boyfriend and I go to this adorable place: http://www.honeycreekacres.com/
AND I went to a haunted corn maze!
http://www.bloomsburyfarm.com/
AND I won a pumpkin carving contest! (no link, just still in shock on that one...)
AND I drank hard apple cider at a Halloween drag show! (not totally autumn related unless you count the apple cider. and yes, we have drag shows in Iowa.)

It's been a great autumn for this gal.

I had an amazing day at Red Apple Farm in Massachusetts. It was beautiful and we came home with quite a bounty. Aside from a massive amount of apples, I bought a couple jugs of their homemade cider, a half dozen cider donuts, and a huge bottle of apple butter. They also host an outdoor bbq on Saturdays in the Fall, and the food was really good. I did a little photo essay on my blog: http://dinnerblogging.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-apple-week-at-dinner-blog.html.

We went to Smolak Farms in North Andover, MA for the second year in a row. Tons of varieties of apples at this place! We picked 6 lbs of peaches, a peck of apples--granny smiths, ladies, strawberries and spitzenbergs (my favorite)--and of course got apple cider and cider donuts. Is it wrong that I look forward to cider donuts all year long?

We visited Windy Hill Orchard in NH for pumpkins (it was too late for apples) before driving west to the Keene Pumpkin Fest. A great fall day with amazing scenery!

We visited Epelgarden in Fitchburg, WI. There we picked 20 pounds of 5 different varieties of apples which I made into applesauce. They also offer carriage rides and have a large pumpkin patch. I the warmer months raspberries are available, too.

CN Smith Farm in East Bridgewater, MA. I stuck to apples, but I think they had punkins too.

YES!! I went apple picking for the first time ever this fall now that I'm living in New England. We went to Tougas Farm in Northborough, MA and picked some of the best apples I've ever tasted. We made an apple pie, made turkey-apple burgers with cranberry-apple salsa, and of course, ate plenty of them raw. The farm has all kinds of fruits to offer through the course of the year as well as a store with goods made from their crops, so I can't wait to go back. I even bought a pumpkin from them that I named Bobby. :)

I went to Oak Glen in Southern California. It was great fun, but truthfully, I have found more interesting apple varieties at my local Whole Foods this year -- Red Prince, Green Dragon (my favorite so far), Chieftain, etc. I literally have 20 different varieties of apple in my refrigerator right now - I guess I'm passionate about apples!

I went to Wilson's Orchard, outside of Iowa City, IA, and ended up with roughly four pounds of apples and a big jar of apple butter.

I didn't make it out to a farm this year but I did read a really cute blog post on Mom's visit to a Canadian apple orchard. Adorable! http://tinyurl.com/ykhsjn8