Buell's Orchard

Yesterday was a holiday for The Map Man, and we celebrated his day off with a family trip to Buell's Orchard in Eastford, Connecticut, where they were holding their annual Fall Festival. Other than the weather being a little (well, OK, quite a bit!) warmer than it should be this time of year, and a quick cloudburst (hooray, rain!) which sent everyone scrambling for cover, it was a great day to be out wandering around the orchards and fields picking pumpkins and apples! This orchard boasts a modern cider press (which was pretty cool to watch operate!), and the only automated caramel apple machine in New England (which the kids were absolutely fascinated with, and which made me drool!).

Zoo Boy on the hayride to the pumpkin field. The ride took us through a good portion of their scenic orchard, and we had fun trying to identify the types of apples we were seeing. We found both J's favorite variety(Red Delicious) and my favorite kind (Macoun).




The Map Man and the boys discuss picking out just the right pumpkin. Both boys did well finding good shapes and sizes for carving Jack-o-lanterns (a project for another day). We all decided that it would be fun to plant our own pumpkin patch next year, so we'll save some of the seeds from these pumpkins to put in our garden in the spring.

J takes an "apple snack break", in this case selecting a Gala apple. He's telling us a story about apple sayings that he learned in one of our Family Story Time books this fall.


The boys watch the live entertainment -- a band called East of Nashville that was really quite good, playing classic country and folk songs. J particularly liked that the lead singer not only played guitar, but also had a harmonica around his neck that he occasionally wailed on.

It was an nice little festival in general, and the location is lovely -- I'll post a few more scenic photos in a minute.