If you are an apple lover this is the time of year that you love. Especially if you live in our area. Hendersonville, North Carolina is “apple central” and since it is just a hop, skip and a jump from us we took advantage of a beautiful fall day when Chris was home and made a trip to a couple of orchards. Hendersonville has a thriving tourism industry and they have a really great website that shares a lot of information. They even have a page dedicated to sharing the names and information of most of the local orchards. Click here to see that link .

We only visited two orchards but that was fine. We had another adventure waiting for us that I will share later on the blog but honestly two orchards gave us plenty of apples to check out and things to see. Both of the orchards were totally different and you will be able to see what I mean by my descriptions. It is so great that there are places that are different so that everyone can have the experience that they desire.

We decided to go to one of the farthest orchards first and visited Twisted Apple Orchard. Located at 4039 Chimney Rock Highway this gem was worth the drive past all of the other orchards. This orchard is the only organic orchard in the area so if that is important to you this is THE place to stop. Of course their prices are a little bit higher than non-organic orchards charge but that is to be expected. We entered the store and it smelled so wonderful. What I loved about this place was that the building was clean, organized and there was great signage so you knew exactly what everything was and what prices were. Add to that the wonderful bakery and all of the samples and we were so grateful that we had gone to the “end of the road” and started our adventure at the Twisted Apple Orchard.

After a side trip to Chimney Rock State Park (more on that another day) we meandered back towards Hendersonville and visited what was originally our destination – Grandad’s Apples. It was every bit as crowded as when we had passed by earlier in the morning and I still insisted that we needed to go because they had….goats. Enough said.

Grandad’s Apples has everything that folks want in an apple orchard experience. You can pick your own apples (I think the U Pick is done for the season now however) or buy ones already picked. They have cider donuts and other delectables in their gift shop. They have a corn maze, cow train, apple cannon, and jump pillow for the kids. There are picnic tables and lots of fun activities that families can do together.

But of course I had to go see the animals so while Mr. Diamond Apple paid for our apples I went in search.

So while there were animals they weren’t accessible which I understand but I was a tad disappointed. It is not a petting zoo nor was it advertised that way. Good thing I found a great place about 5 miles from us on Monday that I can have unlimited access to all of the great animals that I love . Oh yes- there will be a post forthcoming on that as well.

So now I am making applesauce, apple cookies, apple pancakes, apple pie, apple apple apple apple. I love this part of fall. What is your favorite type of apple? There are so many varieties now. At the top of our list is the Honeycrisp which is our new daughter in law’s favorite as well. She introduced me to them and now I can’t get enough. Leave me a comment and tell me which ones you like the best. All comments this month mean a 50 cent donation to our Comments for a Cause – Warm Coats for Kids.