Alyson’s Orchard ~ Walpole, NH

Our New England Life ~ 1st issue

Last weekend, we made our annual fall excursion to Alyson’s Orchard in Walpole, about 10 minutes drive north of here. Each September or October, we try to pick a beautiful day, with lots of sunshine and fall foliage to go and spend some time at Alyson’s. We usually spend an entire afternoon.

Alyson’s is a 500+ acre orchard/farm on a beautiful hilltop overlooking the Connecticut River valley and over into Vermont. A long gravel drive winds upward from Route 12, through the apple orchard, to the crest of the hill. At the top there is small parking lot, a farm stand, a small pond for boating, a bocce court, a small playground for kids, a pen with little Bantam Chickens and piglets, an area to picnic in and a large beautiful function hall. The BBQ tent is outside the farm stand, and there is usually wine tasting, beer, and fall produce to buy. This year, there was live music, too.

This year our timing was perfect. The day turned out to be dry, sunny, with a slight breeze and about 65 degrees…completely perfect! We usually try to arrive around 11:30, in order to partake of the delicious pulled pork sandwiches that are always being created in the tent outside the farm stand. This year, we were trying to be a little more economical, so we settled for giant home-made chocolate chip cookies from the farm stand. We bought our bags for picking apples and meandered down the hill into the orchard.

After many years of tasting and sampling the various kinds of apples, we’ve decided that our favorite kind is Honey Crisp. They are, just as the name implies, crisp and sweet, with a subtle taste of honey. These apples also keep superbly, last year we had apples in the bags on our porch until they froze rock solid around Christmas time. Of course, you really never can tell from year to year and we still haven’t tried all the apple varieties, so we were forced to eat a few apples here and there before we settled on the perfect row. Even though the parking lot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

was full and there were more people walking around the farm stand than we had seen in previous years, it’s still easy to find a private row and be able to play together without bumping into anyone else. 

We picked apples, Jeremiah, Grace & I wrestled some,  Tracy took all kinds of pictures. Tracy usually tries to find a couple of good pictures to use for our family Christmas card. She is such an excellent photographer. She has taken most of the good pictures in this blog. (the crappy ones are mine from the cell phone)

After we had filled our bags to overflowing, we brought the bags to the car and took a walk down to the big oak tree. This tree is enormous, the 4 of us together can’t reach around it. It has to be at least 250 years old.

There is this great hammock swing hanging from one of the huge branches and it is so relaxing to sit and swing in the breeze and watch the clouds drift across the valley. 

Around 5 O’clock we decided to walk up the hill, back to the car and head to mom’s for supper. Alyson’s is such a great way to pass a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and something we look forward to each year.