Apple picking at Terhune Orchards

To welcome the beginning of fall, we headed out to Terhune orchard farms for their fall festival of apple picking and farm fun. Terhune is located in Princeton, nj which is where we used to live years ago before settling down in NYC. I love the area which has its mix of suburbia, rural farm/wilderness, and good old collegiate peppiness (if you needed it).

It was a super gloomy day but a last minute opening in mr P's calendar had us take full advantage of a mini 90 min road trip to central jersey. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot we knew this was the place to be. The property is split into two parts: the farm, pumpkin patch and food/winery/kids activities were in one spot and the apple orchards about a 3 min drive away.

We started off with a quick lunch which is served cafeteria style then winter made a bee-line to the kid race course filled with John Deere push carts and tricycles. We then headed to the pumpkin patch, followed by a run through a muddy corn maze. There's classic fall photo oops everywhere (I mean arent we really here for the photo opp?)

The kids activity area is jam packed with petting farm, pony ride, playground, and interactive stations like "milking" a cow.

With our energy reserve dwindling (and even a "mommy I'm tired" comment thrown out) we quickly purchased our pumpkins, skipped the winery (the missed taste tests!) and headed to the apple orchards. There's lots of ground to cover if you're going for certain varieties but our favorite part was taste testing apples for sweetness. I'm so used to seeing and reading descriptions for apples at the grocery store that getting to pick them off a tree just adds that fresh feeling tenfold. The girls really got into it and was picking away. We agreed the golden delicious apples were the perfect combo of crispness and sweetness so we stocked up on those. We paid and loaded up in the car and headed home ready to make apple everything!