Travel Muse Magazine

There’s something about reaching up into a tree, picking a ripe apple directly off a leaf-lined delicate limb, polishing it to shine on your jeans and biting right into its crimson skin as sweet juice bursts on your tongue that is quintessential Michigan. It’s even better when the trip down the orchard lanes starts with a hayride and you follow that up your fruit picking with a trip inside the farm store to grab freshly made cider and donuts.

Growing up in Texas, I didn’t know of this joy. It was only when we came to Michigan looking for a new home that we really learned of this fall tradition. Our realtor suggested it to us after a full day of house hunting. She assured us that a quick drive up to Spicer Orchards in Fenton would well be worth our time. She was right! Since that first visit, we’ve been to several orchards and cider mills over our five years here. It’s a highlight of the season really, right alongside Michigan football games, pumpkin spice lattes and sweater weather. We’ve even done the pumpkin patch 5k at Spicer one year.

No matter if you’re new to the state or the area for school or a job or its just not something your family ever got around to doing, you should give it a go. You don’t need to have kids to have a great time apple picking. (Though they do have a cool play zone a cute goats to pet, if you do.) For those 21+ there’s also a winery and brewery to check out too, which I will have to check out on a future trip. But it sounds delicious too.

If you do go, here’s what to expect based on our experience this weekend at Spicer (about 40 minutes north of Ann Arbor straight up M23)…

Park in the big field and walk up the hill, following the signs to “Pick your own.”

Decide how many apples you want to pick. I highly recommend a group of 3-4 people split a peck of apples because it’s actually a lot. If you get a peck per person (that’s their smallest amount), you should have plans for giving apples away to friends or a recipe for apple sauce and apple pie on hand! These are really not bad problems to have 😉 But it’s really a lot more apples than you’re probably buying from the grocery store each week. And at $25 for the you-pick-peck, you don’t want them to go to waste. $25 may sound expensive, but when you think of it as an activity as well as buying the fruit, it’s a pretty good deal.

If you want to also pick your own raspberries, they have that too right now for $6 for a container’s worth. And that includes the hayride too! That’s what I’d suggest if you have group of 3-4. Get two raspberries and one peck on apples. You’ll have plenty to share between four people. Or you can all just share the apples, if you’d rather.

Hop on the hayride! It’s old school in all the fun ways. Climb up the stairs, sit on hay and hang on. It’s a pretty bumpy ride down the dirt roads around the orchard.

Get off when you see a sign with the type of apples you want to start with. We did the multi-variety option as we wanted to get a few of a bunch of types, mostly to walk around more.

You can get on and off then hayride as much as you want. Or you can skip it, if that’s not your thing and just walk back. It’s not really that far.

Do make sure to wear closed-toe shoes, sunglasses, and sunscreen, and perhaps a hat.

Once you’ve filled you containers and are back at the front, head to the farm market, where you can buy local honey (we did – it’s expensive but yummy), donuts, cider, fudge and other farm-fresh stuff. We also bought a pie pumpkin and delicata squash.

If you’ve not ever had delicata like we hadn’t before moving to Michigan, you’re going to want to try this! It’s super easy to make, as you just slice it up, rind included. The whole thing is edible, which makes it super easy to make. The “spice club” at my library told me about this, suggesting to just slice, put into the oven with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and bake. It’s like heathy fries. So good!

Cider donuts are also something that can’t be beat fresh. This is not a typical cake donut and the ones we’ve had at cider mills taste nothing like versions we’ve tried at grocery stores and other bakeries. They’re almost like a cake donut and a cinnamon donut tist had a little delicious donut fall baby. To me, they are nearing a churro, especially if you get the ones coated in a cinnamon sugar (the best kind!). And dig right into the bag as soon as you check out. The flavor of the cider donuts compliments the fresh apple taste you’ll already have in your mouth, making a delightful and satisfying feeling from your mouth to your stomach.

Bon appétit!