Apple U-Pick Orchards in Northwestern North Carolina in 2024, by county
Below are the U-Pick orchards and farms for apples that we know of in this area. Not all areas of any state, nor even every state, have apples orchards that are open to the public. If you know of any others, please tell us using the add a farm form!
Remember to always check with the farm's own website or Facebook page before you go - or call or email them if they don't have a website or Facebook page. Conditions at the farms and crops can change literally overnight, so if you want to avoid a wasted trip out there - check with the farm directly before you go! If I cannot reach them, I DON'T GO!
PLEASE report closed farms, broken links and incorrect info using the "Report Corrections" form below.
Burke County
- Apple Hill Orchard & Cider Mill - Apples, Wagon rides, cider mill, farm bakery, farm market
2075 Pleasant Hill Ave, Morgantown, NC 28655. Phone: 828-437-1224. Email: Jprewitt@applehillorchard.com. Open: Call for hours, You-pick apples will begin on Saturdays in mid-August and Monday to Saturday from early September until early November. Directions: I-77 North to I-40 West to Exit 104, Enola Road. Turn left, go four miles and turn right at sign onto Pleasant Hill Avenue. Orchard and store are about 300 yards on the right. Prices will vary. Wagon rides on Saturdays in September and October; farm stand and country store late August until December . 24. Restrooms, cider slushies and sheltered picnic tables available. Apple Hill Orchard has 22 varieties of apples planted with 18 available for u-pick. U-pick begins in Mid August and continues until all the apples are harvested. Historically this is the 2nd week in November but it does vary each year. New for 2020 - We will provide u-pick bags that you keep. U-pick bags will be sold pre-picking. We will not be weighing apples. Baskets can be purchased at cost for you to pick with and take home if you desire .Also Apple Hill Orchard has grown peaches for decades. They are not pick your own. They grow white and yellow peaches, as well as yellow nectarines! All peaches and nectarines are freestone. . Click here for a map and directions. . Opening on Select Days! Peaches begin ripening around early July, and we pick peaches until mid August. Nectarines ripen mid to late July and into early August.Our Farm Market at 2075 Pleasant Hill Ave. will be open on Wednesdays, Fridays, & Saturdays until the middle of August; from 9-6. Our Market will be open with peaches, donuts, apple cider, apple cider slushies, peach cider slushies, and all of our traditional store stocked items! The orchard will not be open and u-pick will be unavailable until mid-August and will be open Monday to Saturday until Christmas Eve! U-Pick apples will begin on August 14th. We look forward to your visit! (UPDATED: August 16, 2020 JBS)
Watauga County
- Moretz's Mountain Apples - apples
2820 Big Hill Road, Boone, NC 28607. Phone: 828-264-3424. Email: bhave995@gmail.com. Click here for a map and directions. . Over 90 Variety of Available. Call for appointment.
Apple
Apple Picking Tips, Recipes and Information
Apples ripen from the outside of the tree towards the center, so the apples out the outside of the tree will ripen first. Once they are picked, they stop ripening. Picking apples directly from a tree is easy. Roll the apple upwards off the branch and give a little twist; don't pull straight away from the tree. If two apples are joined together at the top, both will come away at the same time. Don't shake the trees or branches. If the apple you are trying to pick drops, (or others on the tree) go ahead and pick it up. They're perfectly fine! But do wash them before you eat them! More info: How to tell when apples are ripe
- Once picked, don't throw the apples into the baskets, place them in gently, or they will bruise and go bad more quickly.
- Don't wash apples until just before using to prevent spoilage.
- For an explanation of why apple slices turn brown and how to stop it, see this page!
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Keep apples cool after picking to increase shelf life. A cool basement is ideal, but the fruit/vegetable drawer of a refrigerator will work, too. A refrigerator is fine for small
quantities of apples. Boxed apples need to be kept in a cool, dark spot
where they won't freeze. Freezing ruptures all of an apple's cells, turning
it into one large bruise overnight. The usual solution is to store apples in
a root cellar. But root cellars often have potatoes in them: apples and
potatoes should never be stored in the same room because, as they age,
potatoes release an otherwise ethylene gas, which makes apples spoil faster.
If you can keep the gas away from your apples, they will keep just fine.
Just don't store them right next to potatoes.
Prevent contact between apples stored for the winter by wrapping them individually in sheets of newspaper. The easiest way to do this is to unfold a section of newspaper all the way and tear it into quarters. Then stack the wrapped apples . See more here: How to store apples at home - Apples don't improve or "ripen" after being picked - this is an urban myth - see this page for the truth - with references!
Which apple variety is best?
There are tens of thousands of varieties of apples, developed over centuries. They vary in sugar, acoidity, flavors, storing, crispness and many other attributes. See our guides to apple varieties:
- Summary table of many apple varieties and their characteristics
- Detailed descriptions of each apple variety with detailed characteristics
- Apple varieties, sorted by the order in which they typically ripe
- Apple varieties that don't turn brown when they are cut
- Why are some apples brown or spotted inside when you first cut them open?
Canning apples - fully illustrated, with step-by-step instructions
- How to make applesauce
- How to make apple butter
- How to make apple jelly
- How to make apple pie filling (canned)
- How to can apples
- Home canned apple juice
Recipes, illustrated with step by step instructions
- Apple pie recipe and directions and illustrated! I can say, with, ahem, no bias at all, that this is the best apple pie recipe in the world! (Alright, I did have an apple strudel in Vienna once at that place listed in Fodors that was REALLY good, but that wasn't a pie, was it? And since this was the recipe my grandmother used, it must be great!)
- How to make applesauce for a single meal (not canning it) with NO special equipment
- Apple cobbler
- Apple crunch - best of all! Moist, low sugar and using oats!
- Apple crisp - ever-popular, low sugar and using oats!
- Apple, blackberry, cherry, and/or peach cobbler
- Apple-blackberry, crumble - a English favorite (or favourite)
Using fresh apples and miscellaneous
- How to stop cut apples from browning
- Apple festivals - find one near you!
- Apple facts
- Apple seeds and cyanide