Apple Picking at Martin Vineyards

The weekend after Labor Day, just as the first tinges of fall were beginning to show themselves in the trees and on the air, James and Anne and I drove down to Knotts Island, North Carolina, to do some apple picking. Martin Vineyards & Orchard has been open for apple-picking since July, but we really wanted to wait until it was almost autumn to go -- it just isn't the same, picking apples without that little crispness in the air.

Knotts Island in late summer is beautiful, with the green and gold fields and the tall brown marsh reeds against all that blue sea and blue sky. We stopped for lunch at Pearl's Bay Villa, the town's one restaurant, and then we drove on to the little vineyard and orchard on the shores of the bay, just across the water from the far northern North Carolina Outer Banks. As we bumped down the grassy road we could already see tons of ripe apples dotting the trees. We paid for our bushel bag, and then we got to picking.

The Granny Smiths were in season, so that was mostly what we got, but there were a few Pink Ladys and Galas dotting the very top branches, where most of the pickers couldn't reach. Luckily, we had a secret weapon

Anouk had an absolute blast -- she's an apple fiend, so she was pretty much in heaven. She swiped several apples from low-hanging branches and ate them as quick as she could. We had to stop her from sampling the ones that had fallen to the ground. The orchard echoed with her little cries of "yum, yum, yum, YUM!"





Once we'd filled our bags, we went to look out at the water for a while and then wandered around the shady paths. By the time we headed home, just as the sun was starting to get low in the sky, we felt like we'd gotten our fill of both apples and of pure coastal North Carolina beauty. I already want to go back -- I have a feeling a September visit to Martin's Vineyard is going to become an annual family tradition.

For more information on apple picking in the Hampton Roads area, check out My Active Child's post.

What are your favorite apples? More importantly, what are your favorite apple-based recipes? Send 'em over -- we could use them.