In Pictures: The sweet embrace of an autumn tradition

Brothers Leigh (right) and Penn Parseghian admire an apple they’ve just picked at Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow, Massachusetts, Sept. 24. The family recently moved to the area from Southern California. This was the boys’ first time picking their own apples.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

October 12, 2022

One sunny Saturday, a couple meander through orchard rows grasping opposite ends of a stick, two full harvest bags of apples slung between them. They pass other families, spaced along the length of the grassy path, cast in afternoon sunlight dappled by the squat trees. The pickers talk in hushed tones, searching for the right adjectives to describe the immense flavor of the half-eaten fruits in their hands.  

Nearby, a tractor drags a long wooden platform piled with people and hay bales. Its driver grips a yellow apple between his teeth as he stands up proudly, hands on hips. His teenage assistants usher guests on board and trade side-eyed smiles, silently acknowledging their shared responsibility over the hectic scene before them.

Six-year-old Charlotte is a veteran apple picker. “We come here almost every year,” she says. “The ones we just picked over there are my favorite, but I also like the sour ones.”

Why We Wrote This

As summer melts into fall, New Englanders savor the fleeting delights of a season in transition.

To the uninitiated, the apple-picking pilgrimage may seem an odd way to spend an afternoon. Are the entry fee, long line of cars, port-a-potties, and parking lot politics really worth their weight in autumn fruit? 

One more apple is added to a bag of assorted varieties. Visitors pay for apples by the bagful.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

For the crowd at Honey Pot Hill in Stow, Massachusetts, the experience seems to capture all the metaphorical significance of those few short months between summer and winter when the sun is warm and the breeze is cool, when the impermanence of the seasons is a tangible presence in the air. 

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“Do we have to get off here?” Charlotte asks her parents. “But it’s so much fun.”

Rob Velt throws an apple down to his new fiancée, Danielle Calder. He just surprised her by proposing a few minutes before.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
A hand-written sign directs visitors to McIntosh apples. The orchard grows about 25 apple varieties on a 186-acre farm.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
An apple hangs ripe and ready to pick. Honey Pot Hill has been in the Martin family for four generations.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
The Chen family and some neighbors meander through rows of apple trees with a wagon to help carry produce.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff