Autumn is my absolute favorite season. Something about the crisp air and a time of year when it’s not too hot, not cold, but just cold enough that you can wear a light sweater and some cute boots. Naturally, being down south I don’t get the foliage autumns I’d grown used to growing up, up north but there are still those little autumn traditions that you can find almost anywhere. Enter apple picking at Windy Hill Orchard & Cidery.
I don’t know if Windy Hill is more of a cidery or an orchard – I guess it depends on your love for cider and/or whether you go with your kids or not. With virtual school making it possible for her to create her own schedule, my daughter and I headed out to our 1 pm apple picking reservation on the first September Thursday they had available. Due to their popularity over the years, and the way apple quantities vary based on weather conditions, you have to make reservations in advance. With our need to avoid most people due to her immunocompromised system, we were all too happy to be able to go any day except a weekend.
To our surprise, there were probably only 5 other families there, so it was like we had the entire orchard to ourselves. Once you provide your name, and tickets are verified, they give you your bags for collecting your apples and a cute little apple bucket to collect any bruised apples you find along your way. Not going to lie, I was so excited to be doing our first autumn activity of the season that I completely forgot to use the basket for anything other than collecting the apples we were going to be taking home.
Apples were plentiful, though it probably didn’t hurt we were the first picking crew of the season. We noticed most of the red apples towards the top of the trees, but we stuck to the ones closer to the bottom (with hints of red) as directed. I will say, when we got them home and tasted them, they didn’t taste like anything. I’m not certain if this is because perhaps they weren’t quite ready despite their blushing color but just something to note. Not wanting them to go to waste, we’re going to use them in various baking projects to see how best to use the Stayman Winesap apples growing on the Windy Hill Orchard trees.
As mentioned above, apple picking at Windy Hill isn’t all the orchard offers. They’re a full-blown cidery for adults looking to unwind on the weekends, and they offer other, family-friendly, options like apple slushes, non-alcoholic apple cider, pies, apple cider donuts, and hayrides. We didn’t get a chance to do the hayride, but we did try some of the other offerings.
I love a good slush and the fried pies were SO good and I could have eaten several. The donuts didn’t have much of an apple or cider taste and seemed more like cinnamon sugar than anything – not bad at all, just not what I was expecting. Oddly enough, while I enjoyed the apple cider in slush form, I didn’t care for the apple cider pint we brought home and ended up tossing it within days of purchasing. I hated wasting it but no one was going to drink it … at least I supported a local business, so optimism.
Amount Spent: $32
- $6 1/2 dozen donuts
- $5 (2) fried pies
- $5 1/2 gallon Apple Cider
- $6 (2) Frozen Cider Slushes
- $10 (2) 1/4 Peck Bags of Apples $10
Distance from Charlotte: 19 miles or about 39 minutes in our case
