Autumn Country Weekend

by Jake Farley

It's a dream weekend - and just a hop-in-the-car away.

We park the car by the old barn and prepay for picking 20 pounds of apples and pears. The orchard on this Jersey hillside lies above a dirt road that rambles uphill.

Harry Vance, owner with his wife Barbara, pulls up on his tractor and hay wagon to drop off a family who just finished picking their fill of Adam's folly. Kathy and I skip the ride and opt to walk uphill through 114 fruitful acres. We need the exercise.

The trees sweep further up as we get on our way. It's a vista from mountains of lawn and big rounded apple trees that look more like shrubs. Some are 60 years old and still bear the products of well-tended trees - McIntosh, sweet Milton, Macoun, Golden. And the pears - Bartlett and Bosc.

Our climb is perfumed by the sweet scent of apples - the crush of the fruit on the roadway and the fragrance of red ripe pommes waiting for Eve.

The rows of bushy, decorated apple trees remind me of the Queen of Hearts. Perhaps she is painting the apples red on the side of Pochuck Mountain in these ancient Appalachians?

This scenic walk is invigorating with anticipation of a juicy reward. The views are impressive - Mounts Adam and Eve and the farms of the "Black Dirt" region across the way in Orange County, New York.

Woods begins to border the rutted road on the uphill side -- it's orchard on the down. For anyone with a botanical bent, Jack-in-the-Pulpit and bittersweet are pretty to see on the roadside.

It's Saturday, late afternoon and quiet. We have the orchard to ourselves with glorious sights, delicious scent, and the excitement of change in the air.

We taste each kind of apple along the way to se what we like best. So far, it's Miltons - small, round and sweet. We'll pick on the way down. The grass in the crimson-fruited landscape is full of clover. Makes me want to lie in it and roll around.

Cornfields hide around the bend at the top of the road, so we head back down, ready to pick. Kathy picks three Granny Smiths, then we stock up on Miltons. I smell them right through their skins. Heaven!

We discover that an apple is ready to be picked when you can easily twist it right off the branch. The pears just snap.

Want to be a kid again? Go apple picking! Bring mosquito juice and wear sturdy shoes.

Harry Vance and his wife Barbara bought Pochuck Valley Farm in 1976, but Harry's been on the farm since he was 14, quite a few years ago. They say the apple crop is good this year. "It's just weather-permitting how long the season will last," says Barbara. "If we have a nice fall, the crispy weather makes good growing for apples."

The Vances keep their unwaxed apples in cold storage and sell them in the store through March. Late apples, such as red and golden delicious, Stayman winesap, and Rome, will keep in a home fridge till the end of December. Barbara recommends storing them in a box in an unheated garage.

After apple-picking, visitors often head to the store for a taste of the Vance's all-natural home-made cider pressed in the back room and a just-made cider donut - and maybe a pie made from the farm's apples and pumpkins.

"Harry always cuts up a pumpkin and cooks it and we make bread or pie from it. We sell so many donuts, they're generally warm when you get them." It's fun to wrap your hands around a cup of homemade soup and sit in front of the woodstove.

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published October 01, 2003