Picking Apples at North Star Orchards in Madison, Maine

What a beautiful orchard. I’ve been to some really lovely (yes, I said lovely) orchards in my time, but nothing quite like North Star Orchards in Madison, Maine.

Last week, Laura and I decided that if we were going to pick apples this month, we better get on the road. We have a terrible habit of waiting too long for these things and by the time the season almost passes, we go picking during a rain storm. It’s like a race against time because of our laziness. This year though, besides the oppressive heat wave that hit towards the end of September, we experienced almost perfect weather.

I’ve never been to North Star before, but like I said, it’s a great place. There’s tons of good parking and enough space to pretty much avoid everyone. Even though the orchard does offer a tractor to pull folks up the almost quarter mile dirt road to the active picking trees, we decided to walk. If I can recall, I wasn’t in the mood to be pulled around. It’s a nice feature for someone, perhaps, who has a broken leg or an injured organ or something, but for two able bodied adults, walking it was. Nature at its finest.

How were the apples? Well, they were and are still delicious. We picked a half bushel and paid $18 for it. If my calculations are correct, that’s less than $1 per pound. Not bad for some really juicy McIntosh and Cortland.

I took a bunch of pictures, so I’ll post them below. I hope you enjoy.