Where to Pick Your Own Fruit This Fall

Spend your summer days harvesting fruit and creating yummy treats after. There are many places that you can pick your own fruit, and we’re showing you exactly where to go for the best experience possible.

Apple Starr Orchards – Julian

This beautiful experience is located about an hour from San Diego, making it the perfect day time adventure. You can start picking ripe fruit at the end of August from 11am-4pm on the weekends, and can call and schedule an appointment during the weekdays. Come pick fresh apples and make delicious apple pie, apple fritters, or caramel apples for dessert. You can also be creative in how to use your fresh apples, such as peanut butter dipped apples. Just cut up the apple into slices, dip it in peanut butter and drizzle melted chocolate on top. After this, put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to harden, and you’ll have yourself a very tasty dessert apple-tizer.

Apples and Art Orchards – Julian

At Apples and Art Orchards, you can fill your basket with 5 pounds of apples for only $12. This will make your main dessert ingredient cheap and delicious. These apples are absolutely juicy with flavor. Make sure to call ahead of time to make reservations, and plan the perfect day out with your family. The Orchard opens on September 7^th, so make sure to reserve a spot while you still can. While picking these astonishing apples, create ideas as to what dessert you want to make that night. A unique idea on how to create an apple dessert is with apple pastries. All you will need is dough, sugar, 4 peeled apples with no cores, ½ cup of butter, 1 tbsp. vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and get ready to create the best apple pastry you’ve ever tasted. Wrap dough around each apple and set it into the pan. After this put all the other ingredients into a bowl and pour the mixture over the apples. Bake this for 40 minutes and you will have yourself a very fresh treat.

Calico Ranch – Julian

If you are addicted to apples and pears, this place will be your new obsession. The ranch is open Saturdays and Sundays of September through October from 10am-4pm. There are over 100 unique types of apples and pears, and its all waiting for you to bake it into something delicious. Create cinnamon baked pears for the whole family, and tingle their taste buds with your baking skills. You will need 4 pears, ½ cup of melted butter, 1tbsp. of cinnamon, oats, almonds, brown sugar, and salt. Set your oven to 400 degrees and scoop out the center out of the pears, while filling them with the following mixture. Sprinkle the sugar and butter into a bowl, while putting the oats, almonds, brown sugar, and cinnamon into the mixture as well, with a pinch of salt on top. Pour the mixture into the scooped out pears and bake for 40 minutes. You will have the best of both worlds with a crunchy and soft taste.

Bar 2 Ranch – Pauma Valley

This extraordinary ranch has all sorts of delicious fruit to be harvested, such as oranges, grapefruits, pomegranates and mangos. Come down any day of the week between 8am-6pm in order to find the ingredients for your sweet treats. For pomegranates, you can create pomegranate cup bites. All you will need is fillo shells, cream cheese, milk, orange zest, vanilla, and 1 pomegranate. Cook the shells for about 5 minutes and put the mixture of ingredients inside, and finishing it off by refrigerating for 3 hours. These delicious bites will be your new craving, and your new hobby all in one. Bar 2 Ranch is currently closed due to being out of season, so look forward to fresh fruit until picking next season!

 You can be creative with any fruit you pick, and create an extraordinary dessert. Make this a fun summer activity that everyone can enjoy, and create new desserts every day of the week with your fresh finds.