Fishkill Farms

Luke and I took a train up the Hudson River, to the small town of Fishkill for some apple, pumpkin, and sunflower picking. remember our fall harvest trip last year to a vineyard, goat-cheese farm, and farmer's market?

we had apple cider cake donuts for breakfast. MMM

the reason i chose this farm. i like knowing where my food is from and what it has been in contact with

we arrived bright and early to beat the crowds. the air was misty and the ground was a blanket of dew

so bountiful

(that white film on the apples is Kaolin Clay which is 100% non-toxic and camouflages the fruit from insect pests, reducing the use of pesticides. it wipes off super easy with a paper or cloth towel)

preparing for picking

we started by snagging some Jonamacs

then we picked some Golden Delicious

♥

the sun finally made an appearance as we headed down to the pumpking patch

i chose 2 puny ones, even though i wanted a ginormous monster pumpkin. they were super muddy and we had a long walk back to the farmhouse to consider 

i was so excited to "pick" some fresh sunflowers

so sloppy in the field

(the sun was playing peek-a-boo with the clouds)

note to self- always wear wellies to farms

(bandits from here)

walking back up to the farmhouse with our goodies

i like the ghoulish gray pumpkins

cluck, cluck

waiting for a taxi back to the train station and really glad we made the effort to come early in the day. hoards of families galore had arrived (which is just the thing we were trying to escape from the city!)

as we sat waiting for the train back to Manhattan, I kept gazing at these and thinking fondly of the sunflower fields back home in Kansas