Apple Picking in NC – The notion of apple picking is one that conjures up romantic images of happy families exploring picturesque orchards and picking crisp red fruit with golden leaves. Add to that fascinating and diverse surroundings of North Carolina and the perfect family activity has been created, with no tech in sight! As you explore North Carolina in the autumn be sure to get out into the countryside to enjoy the delights of the traditional, bucolic orchards and take some time enjoying the most classic of fall activities – pick-your-own apples! Apple picking season in North Carolina begins in mid August and continues through to the end of October.
Please do check opening times and more details with each farm before your visit, just in case anything has changed since we published this post. Enjoy your apple picking!
Coston Farm and Apple House
3748 Chimney Rock Rd, Hendersonville, NC 28792
Coston Farm and Apple Shop is the perfect family day out this autumn!
“Visit Coston Farm and Apple House in the autumn for pre-picked fresh apples, plus everything you need to decorate for the fall season, including pumpkins, gourds, corn shocks, hay, and indian corn. Pick Your Own Apples or visit our Apple House gift shop for unique fall decorations and apple themed items or try sumptuous baked goods in our bakery.
Fall is Apple Picking Time in Hendersonville NC!
Enjoy a memorable pick-your-own-experience at Coston Farm with the NC mountains as a back drop. You can pick fresh apples in the Coston Farm U-Pick Orchard August – October by the bag, box or truckload.
Justus Orchard
187 Garren Rd, Hendersonville, NC 28792
“The Justus family has been growing apples for over 100 years, we love what we do and invite you to visit our apple orchard in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. Enjoy a day in the country with your family, picking apples from our dwarf-size apple trees, bring your lunch and enjoy eating it at our new picnic area while you take in the beautiful views surrounding our apple orchard.
We offer apple orchard tours for families, church groups and other groups featuring quality apples and a great time for all. You can pick your own apples, or we can pick them for you, but whichever way you like it you’re sure to find the variety of apple you love. Make sure while you are here you visit our bakery for your favorite dessert. We look forward to seeing you soon!
At Justus Orchard, you can buy your apples already pre-picked or you can pick your own apples. Whether you choose to U Pick or We Pick NC Apples, you can sample, mix and match to make sure go home with your favorite apples for eating or cooking.”
Sky Top Orchard
1193 Pinnacle Mountain Rd, Flat Rock, NC 28731
At Sky Top Orchard they offer the whole family a wonderful day out, full of outdoor activities, beautiful surroundings and yummy treats!
“The mountains of western North Carolina are full of pick your own u-pick orchards. We offer more. In addition to a long list of apple varieties, visit Sky Top Orchard and you’ll enjoy panoramic mountain views, orchard ponds with ducks and geese, a barnyard area with sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks and more, a bamboo forest to explore, lots of picnic areas and, of course, a mountaintop of fragrant apple and fruit trees. View our downloadable map to see all that we have to offer and visit our picking schedule to find out what’s available now.
When you purchase a bushel of apples, a wagon load of pumpkins or a cooler full of apple cider you’ll take home more than the makings for delicious fall recipes, you’ll take home a mountain of memories too. And don’t forget our famous apple cider doughnuts. They’re an autumn tradition. We bet you can’t eat just one.”
All about the apples…”Our warm days and cool summer nights create conditions perfect for over 22 varieties of apples. Many of our guests are surprised to learn that their favorite apples are not available all season. Early apples like Early Macs, Ginger Golds and Honeycrisps start us off in August but are long gone by the time Pink Lady and Arkansas Blacks make their appearance near the end of the growing season. U-Pick typically runs from early August until the end of October but can go longer depending on weather and supply/demand.”
Millstone Creek Orchards
506 Parks Crossroads Church Rd, Ramseur, North Carolina 27316
At Millstone Creek Orchards, in addition to the Pick-Your- Own, they offer a whole host of family orientated events throughout the year.
“At Millstone Creek Orchards, we love when our guests come out to enjoy our u-pick experience. It’s a wonderful way to teach your family where our food comes from and how it’s grown. Join us this season and create life-long memories with your friends and family by picking all types of fresh fruits.
Apple season is by far our most popular season and our picking days are a blast! U-Pick Apples were the first fruit that we offered at the Orchard, and currently, we have five different small apple orchards with various apple varieties. Plan to join us this fall for an apple picking experience. There’s nothing like biting into a fresh apple right off the tree.”
Devil Dog Orchard
771 NC-150, Reidsville, NC 27320
Devil Dog Orchard is dedicated solely to offering guests wonderful days out in the country, picking fruit.
“Devil Dog Orchard is a Rockingham County, pick your own apple orchard. We are located on NC 150, convenient to Reidsville, Greensboro, Burlington and surrounding areas. Our sweet, crisp apples are available beginning in late August through September. Come enjoy a day in the country and discover tree-ripened flavor!
Jeter Mountain Farm Orchard
1126-A Jeter Mountain Rd, Hendersonville, NC 28739
With a rich history in the art of growing fruit, Jeter Mountain Farm offers apple picking from August to October.
“Jeter Mountain Farm is settled on 411 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains and has been an active farm in Henderson County since 1813. When you visit our farm, we hope laughter will fill your wagon ride out to our u-pick orchards, and that your family will be delighted to fill your baskets with the berries, peaches, pumpkins, grapes and 23 varieties of apples that we grow.
We are proud to have over 23 varieties of apples available in our U-Pick orchards in addition to peaches, blueberries and pumpkins, and each variety becomes ripe at different times throughout the harvest season. To find when your favorite produce will be ready, what we are picking this weekend and what is available in our market visit the website. Our hope is that your family can find fun activities, enjoy fresh donuts, cider, and fruit, and above all else, discover an experience that your family will remember and carry home with you.”
Knob Creek Orchard
6471 Fallston Rd, Lawndale, NC 28090
At Knob Creek they love everything apples and offer an extensive range of delicious apple based products in their farm shop.
“Knob Creek Orchards has been family owned and operated since 1958. We started as a small apple and peach business on the Cleveland-Lincoln county line and have grown to sell strawberries, blackberries, and homemade ice cream.
At Knob Creek Orchards we grow a wide variety of fruit. We open up in the spring each year with strawberries. In summer you will find peaches and blackberries. The fall of the year brings us to a close with many varieties of apples. Be sure to experience the joys of Knob Creek Orchards at every season. We begin harvesting apples in late August through December, so you will have plenty of time to make multiple trips to Knob Creek to experience many types of apples.
We’ve been growing apples for years and change varieties regularly to satisfy the demands of our customers. We listened when we heard our customers would like to bag-their-own apples. 1/2 peck, peck, 1/2 bushel, or bushel we’ve got it all!
*The apples are already picked from the tree, but you can pick them from a bin!
Apples, apple cider, apple bread, apple jelly, apple butter, you name it we probably have it. We started out as apple growers and apples are still our passion so we have various apple products to fit every occasion. Apples also make excellent gifts and are a healthy snack, so pick up a bag of our fresh apples to take to your Thanksgiving dinner! While you are here stop inside to try some delicious homemade apple ice cream on a fresh waffle cone. “
Sugarloaf Orchards
7415 NC-16, Taylorsville, NC 28681
Sugarloaf Orchards is a modest, family affair, offering visitors the opportunity to enjoy some organic, outdoor farm life experiences whilst fruit picking at being at one with nature.
“We are a 5th generation family owned and operated orchard. We grow top quality Apples, Peaches, Asian Pears, Cherries, and Plums.
Sugarloaf Orchard is located in the Brushy Mountains of NC, a region known for its quality apple production. The farm was started in the 1800’s by Isaiah Lowe. Bobby and Bryant Lowe opened Sugarloaf Apple House in 1971 and continue to run it today, with the help of Bobby’s son Ryan Lowe, who handles all the orchard operations.”
With over 20 varieties of apples available at different times of the season, you can experiment with new flavors!
In addition to the apples, they offer much more farm produce!
“We have a wide selection of Amish made Jams from the Dutch Kettle in Hamptonville, NC. We have honey (local when available), molasses, pickled eggs, sauerkraut, pickles beets, and many more canned items. We carry Foothills Country Ham and Cheeses from Jonesville, NC. We sell corn meal, grits, and pancake mix from Linneys Water Mill right here in Alexander County. We also have many varieties of dry beans and happy home flavorings.”
Perry Lowe Orchards – Apple Picking North Carolina
8741 NC-16, Moravian Falls, NC 28654
At Perry Lowe Orchards they are the ultimate apple experts! They are exceptionally passionate and clued up on all things apples.” The Perry Lowe Orchards family is excited to open our farm for U-Pick, so that you, your family and friends can enjoy the fall mountain-top views and pick your favorite apple varieties. We have about 30,000 apple trees that keep us busy year-round.
We pick, wash, grade and box about 4 million apples each apple season. If you lined up our apple tree rows from end to end it would be about 44 miles long.
(Whew, that’s a lot of walking and riding tractors for our farmers and pickers.)
Even when the trees are “resting” in the winter, we are busy pruning, planting new trees, and drying apples. In the spring, we have to rent bees to pollinate all of our apple trees. There aren’t enough natural bees to pollinate all our apple trees. An apple tree likes to produce every other year, that’s why we thin the apples each year. This helps them to produce a crop every year.
We start harvesting our early apples around late June and don’t stop picking until early December.“
Carrigan Farms
1261 Oak Ridge Farm Hwy, Mooresville, NC 28115
Five generations of farmers have been working the land at Carrigan Farms and today, they provide some of the best apple picking in North Carolina! With a beautiful private quarry on site, Carrigan Farms also serves as a refreshing and super fun swimming hole, and a stunning, rural wedding venue.
“We’ve been farming this piece of dirt for over 100 years; our roots run deep. From asparagus to zucchini and everything in between, we are just a BIG garden. While, California grows more fresh produce than any other state in the country, we are 3,000 miles fresher and more flavorful. You can taste the difference”
Apple pickings details –
“Entry charge includes a hayride to the orchard and a half peck bag of apples for each person. Apple varieties for picking are red and golden delicious.”
Grandad’s Apples
2951 Chimney Rock Rd, Hendersonville, NC 28792
Grandad’s Apples has been family owned and operated since 1994.
“Visit Grandad’s for the day and enjoy a variety of family fun activities on a 100-acre family farm and apple orchard located in Hendersonville NC near Asheville. Select pre-picked apples fresh off the trees daily from our bins. In Grandad’s pumpkin patch you will find pumpkins and jack o’lanterns in every size and shape. At Grandad’s Barn and Country Store, you will find a great selection of fall harvest decorations, apple peelers, apple bakers, and other apple gifts. Come by our bakery where we have hot cider donuts all day along with apple pies, cookies, hot cider, apple cider slushies, and many other apple goodies to eat!
We offer more than 30 different varieties of apples that can be purchased pre-picked! We gladly let you mix and match your varieties. We sell our apples by the pound, 1/2 peck, peck, 1/2 bushel, and bushel.”
Also check out more farms in North Carolina as well as best places for apple picking near me.