In our inaugural post about Day Trips from NYC we wanted to do something that NO ONE has ever done before. Our PR dept. (consisting of 1 person) was able to secure a single spot for an all expenses paid private driving experience on a racetrack sponsored by an exclusive luxury watch company, and we really thought about doing that, but we put our heads together and (after that race car spot was no longer available) we decided we’d rather be relatable than super exclusive in our Day Trip posts (at least to start with). So, instead, we gathered together some of the COHLAB-NYC team and friends and went apple picking.
First thing you gotta know about apple picking near NYC: It’s really not that far away. A nice day in the countryside where you get to bring home a bushel of apples (not sure what a bushel is, but we’re saying we brought home an entire bushel), eat fresh small batch doughnuts and wash them down with a crisp glass of apple cider is only about an hour and change away by car (yes there is hard cider and non-alcoholic cider. COHLAB-NYC is a peer pressure and judgement free zone, so I can have a brew and ERIN can have fresh tapped apple Kombucha #soberstyle).
Yes, apple picking sounds kind of cliche, and it’s seemingly uninteresting, but we still had fun (no one fucked an apple pie, but still fun).
In fact, EVERYONE at the orchard was pretty much having fun. Which, brings us to the second thing you should know about apple picking around NYC: Wherever you go, the experience is going to be pretty much the same, but that’s not a bad thing. There’s going to be fresh apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, pumpkin patches, homemade pies, etc., and the stuff is going to taste good (each farm/orchard makes their apple cider doughnuts in-house and the competition between neighboring farms is serious). Whether you head East to Long Island, North to the Hudson Valley or South or West to New Jersey, it’s nice to be outside in fresh(er) air (NJ may still be a bit dicey). For not that long of a trip, you really do feel like you’ve gotten away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
The third thing you should know about apple picking: It’s more fun when you go with friends who have A kid.
Baby Harlow is so much fun, especially when you don’t have to clean the vomit. Or poop. And you can just hand her back to her mom when she starts screaming. We taught her how to say “pumpkin,” but it sounds more like “BUNTIN!” when she yells it.
Keyword “A,” as in singular. And like a kid kid, not a teenager. For whatever reason, it’s great for a group of adults to be able to play with a baby but not have the responsibilities of parenting. Everyone likes getting a toddler to do or say funny things and there’s plenty of opportunity with corn mazes to get lost in, giant pumpkins to take pictures next to and $0.25 goat food vending machines to see how freaked out they get when a goat actually wants to eat food from their hand (it’s good to get freaked out, as goats will bite).
Even though we enjoyed it as children, we were skeptical going apple picking as adults, but bottom line: Apple picking is much the way we remembered it as kids, there are just more logistics involved (like cars, gas, paying for entry, etc.). It’s a fun, family vibe but there’s definitely room for some mid-20’s early 30’s nonsense. Don’t drink too much (not really that type of scene so you won’t want to be “that drunk person”), try not to throw an apple (it is very tempting), and have a ball figuring out what the heck you’re going to do with an entire bushel of apples once you get back home.
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Trevor Lowe
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