A Fall Outing
Posted October 3, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
I went on a wonderful fall outing this past week! Ever since I moved to Massachusetts I’ve been working on trying to explore the area more. I research things to do and places to visit online, I ask classmates and colleagues where to go, and sometimes I just stumble across places as I go about my day. One thing that several people told me was that I couldn’t go through a fall in New England without a trip to an apple orchard. I’ve noticed that there is an abundance of apple orchards near where I live, and it feels like there are far more here than there were North Carolina. This past week, I decided to take the advice that was given to me and I visited an apple orchard with my family. We went to Tougas Family Farm in Northborough, MA. At the farm it is currently apple and pumpkin picking season. During other times of the year, you can pick other kinds of fruit such as strawberries (early June to early July), cherries (late June to mid-July), blueberries (early July to early September), peaches and nectarines (August to mid-September), and blackberries (early August to early September). We came home with a pumpkin which is now sitting proudly on our front porch and a ton of apples. Seriously, we have so many apples. The last time I went to an apple orchard was for a field trip for school when I was very young and I just remember picking like one apple but when you go with less people, you have to pick more apples. The farm also has a Farm Store, where you can buy baked goods such as pies and apple cider doughnuts. We bought both pie and doughnuts, and both were gone fairly quickly. They were so good. I haven’t had apple cider doughnuts in years. The farm also had some animals like goats, pigs, and a llama. They had a very interesting structure for the goats–they had a bridge for the goats that went up in the air, over the path for the human beings, and back down again into a different pen, so there could be a goat walking above you. Even though we came for the apples, I must admit, I was kind of excited for the animals. Living in a world of watching baby animal videos on Youtube, it is fun to see the animals in real life. The people I spoke to were right- fall in New England is not complete without a visit to an apple orchard. If you have a chance, you should visit one before fall is over! I’ll leave you with some pictures of my outing! If you want to learn more about Tougas Family Farm (the orchard I visited), click here.
