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A for Apple picking, Bay Area!






We love fruits as a family! And what better way to spend your weekend than this?!
Blessed living in California, that offers so many varieties of fruits and farms.
Apples come at the perfect time, end of summer, early fall... It's a great way to enjoy some warmth in the farms and pumpkin decorations!

Alright, apple picking, what's important!
                                    
Timing, choice of the farms and picking them right!
Timing:
I will classify this in two parts, a. When in the season 2. What time of the day.
a. When?!
We learnt it the hard way but it's important to go early in the season. The earlier in the season the fruits are easier to access, and there's lots of them!
Farms usually put up their calendars every year, try and track the times they open for U-Pick.
I noticed this time that the farm we went to offered postcards service to inform you when the season starts - pretty neat, felt like old days when we received postcards in the mail. :)

b. Time of the day - I think it's better to go in the mornings. Less crowded, fresh and the weather is great!

Farms :
There are quit a few farms in and around the Bay area for apple picking. We have been to a couple of them and both in Watsonville, CA.
We like the Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville.
1. They have a few varities of apples
2. Trees bear fruits that are reachable.
3. It's surrounded by mountains which makes it a pretty location
4. The trees are close to where you park, as opposed to some other farms where it's quite a walk to get to the trees

The different varieties, have specific things you should remember. Always good to stop by the front desk where they have baskets and ask for what we should pick and what we shouldn't.
When you reach the farm, they have a parking lot and parking along the access road too. Depending on where you enter from, the picking is on one side and then they have the cafe/restaurant and picnic area on the other.

We reached there in the morning and headed straight to apple picking.. this time I think we were little late in the season and there were only a handful apples and mostly not easily reachable ones left on the trees...

They explained us a little bit about picking the right apples...  The ones that have a little orangish shades for good Fuji and Gala apples... etc

Toddler S didn't have much action as the apples weren't low hanging, but had lots of fun eating them!












We got some good apples and then headed to the picnic area. Had our picnic lunch, ordered some pies and enjoyed relaxing lunch. 
Gizdich ranch has great picnic tables, along with kids playing area which was perfect to keep Toddler S  busy. They are famous for their apple pies and juice which was a great addition to the picnic lunch.

 


Enjoy!


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