APPLE HILL
Visiting apple farms is a fun fall activity with friends or family!
Over Labor Day weekend, I visited Apple Hill for the first time and I highly recommend the experience. Apple Hill represents over 50 local farms – many of them are apple farms, but they also grow other fruits and veggies, Christmas trees, and flowers. Some are wineries as well. It’s also really crowded before Halloween because people are picking up pumpkins.
Visiting Apple Hill is a half-day to full-day activity. While you don’t pick your own apples, the main attraction is to see the farms and try all the delicious apple-themed food!
Apple Hill is located in Placerville, CA – about an hour away from Sacramento.
MAP OF FARMS
It’s nearly impossible to visit all the farms, so pick the top ones that you want to go to. Here’s the map. Some farms may not be on the map though. Depending on the crowds, there may be a lot of traffic or it may be hard to find parking. When we went on Monday morning (Labor Day), there wasn’t many crowds at all, so we luckily got to visit a bunch of farms.
FARMS WE VISITED
Here are the places we stopped at. I went with family who were familiar with the farms and the specialties at each farm.
- High Hill Ranch – has a lake thing, lots of seating areas, food, and lot of independent vendors
- Abel’s Apple Acres – Caramel apples and pastries and pies
- Boa Vista Orchards – Ciders, pastries, pies, and a bomb apple fritter!
- Larsen Apple Barn – Bought fresh apples here. They have a bake shop with food too.
- Mill View Ranch – Cider donuts and hot apple cider
- Delfino Farms – Apple pie is amazing
High Hill Ranch
Mill View Ranch
Sample ciders at Boa Vista
APPLE TREATS
I had no idea there were so many types of baked goods and things you could make with apples. There was apple cider and apple sauce of course. But there was also: apple butter, apple brownies, apple chips, carmellows, empanadas, fritters, cider donuts, apple donut ice cream sandwich, caramel apples, apple wine, cream cheese apple pie, and many other types of apple pies.
Caramel Apples at Abel’s Apple Acres
Bakery at High Hill Ranch
Apple Butter at High Hill Ranch (Available at other farms too)
Carmellows at High Hill Ranch (caramel wrapped around marshmallow)
Some farms also had a frozen food section where they had frozen pies or frozen apple turnovers or pastries that you could take home and bake. Ahh I wish I could have bought those, but I didn’t have a cooler to store them in. 🙁
Frozen treats at Abel’s Apple Acres
WHAT WE TRIED
The good thing about going in a group is that you can split some of these pastries. I definitely had too much sugar by the end of the morning. LoL
Cider donut at High Hill Ranch
Apple empanada at Abel’s Apple Acres
Apple fritter at Boa Vista
Apple Dream Salad at Larsen’s Bake Shop
Cider donuts and hot apple cider at Mill View Ranch
Apple pie at Delfino Farms – it’s a monster!
FRESH APPLES
You can also get fresh apples at these farms of course. Apples are great to bring home and share with people, whereas the pastries are hard to take home. We got the apples from the Larsen Apple Barn, where they have a cool conveyer belt and someone checking the apples. On the side of the barn, they also have bags of different types of apples you can buy. Crispy, crunchy, fresh apples at Larsen Apple Barn – YUM!
WHEN TO GO
You’ll have to check out the website to figure out when the farms are open, but it’s not open year-round. I think it’s mostly open from Labor Day weekend to Christmas Eve each year. Depending on the month you go in, different apple varieties will be in harvest as well. You can check the Harvest Calendar for your favorite type of apple.
Have fun exploring the apple farms!!
You may also want to check out:
Magical Bridge Playground
Interactive Sushi Experience
Meatball Mondays at Bucca di Beppo
What a Toddler Taught Me About Business
