offManhattan

29 Oct

The Orchard for Big Apple Travelers

Written by Jamie Neubern Leisure, New York

Tagged with apple-picking, fall, family, metro-north, orchard, pumpkin, reviews, upstate-new-york

I’m not a nostalgic person. I don’t long for days past, but choose instead to look forward. When asked recently by a friend if I’d ever like to repeat high school or college, my answer was most definitely, undeniably, no. I’m not a particularly patriotic person either. I couldn’t care less about who signed the Declaration or even what July 4^th signifies for most Americans. The stories of Native Americans and the Colonial period bore me. But there is one American tradition that I uphold year after year with a certain wistfulness for the past, and that is the simple act of picking apples.

Wait.

Dispel any image in your head of apple picking before reading further. I do not actually pick anything. Like many New Yorkers, I like my food picked, washed, and dried for me, so that I can buy it at a fresh food market, and brag to my friends that I got it from a “local grower.” No, I look forward to apple picking season each year for one reason and one reason only: it means Apple Cider Doughnuts from the Outhouse Orchards.

The Outhouse Orchard is more than a century old and rests at the top of a street aptly named Hardscrabble Road. It is owned by Wayne S. Outhouse (which explains the unfortunate name), and has been voted onto “Westchester’s Best” list of things to do in Westchester County. The main attraction is the Orchard house, a most quaint, ramshackle building. The house is surrounded by plants and other miscellaneous goodies for sale, a barbeque pit, an old-fashioned cotton candy vendor, and roosters underfoot.

Behind the house, there is a small pond with swans and goats, an abandoned tractor, and in the fall, a vast pumpkin patch, with every shape and size pumpkin imaginable. Invariably in the fall months, there is a long line of people that winds out of the house and into the dirt road in front of it. This is the line to doughnut heaven, or really, a line to a window, from which tireless, flour-and-sugar coated teenage employees will sell you piping hot, fried doughy goodness, in three flavors: powdered sugar, regular sugar, and cinnamon sugar.

The first stop when arriving at the Orchard must be the doughnut window. Once a few doughnuts are consumed and washed down with warm apple cider, the browsing can begin. Inside the Orchard house are other goods, which are almost as delicious as the doughnuts. There are cartons of fresh apple cider and cans of preserves and jams. Towards the back of the house, there is an open kitchen, where one can watch the staff bake apple pies, strawberry pies, cakes, cookies, and of course, doughnuts. There are rows and rows of candy and fudge, piles of corn, baskets of apples, stands and stands of fruits and vegetables. Recently, they have even started selling decorations for Halloween.

Next stop (after another doughnut break), is outside to the pumpkin patch. You can purchase pumpkins in the tents set up for this purpose, or take a hay ride (literally, in a cart of hay, pulled by a tractor) to another pumpkin patch where you can actually pick your pumpkins (as I like my pumpkins picked for me, I’m happy to stay by the house).

As a child, my parents used to bundle me and my brother up in boots and warm sweaters (this was before the real effects of global warming, when October was actually a cold month) and drive us up to the Orchard, and I have gone every year since. The Orchard house is open almost all year round. They continue to sell various foodstuffs and decorations during the Christmas holiday season; it is worth the trip no matter what time of year. The Orchard is a charming family place where children can frolic and adults can get some fresh air and admire the countryside. And yes… if you actually like to pick your apples, you can do that too.

How to get to the Orchard: Take Metro North Railroad from Grand Central to Croton Falls station stop. Cabs generally wait at the station, so take one  to the Orchards just three miles down the road. (Outhouse Orchards, 130 Hardscrabble Rd., North Salem, NY, 914.277.3188. Open daily, April through December)

Apple Cider Doughnuts

Outhouse Orchards

Roosters roaming the farm

Indian Corn

Little Pumpkins

Gords and more

A goat.

Welcome Sign

Candy

Doughnuts!

Market

Fresh Preserves

Delicious Cider

Wreaths at Outhouse Orchard

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1. Alistair Yelssorc Says:
   October 30th, 2007 at 9:06 am

   good pictures are essential to these blog posts. the delicious descriptions of this cool little orchard really made my stomach grumble, but once i saw that incredible picture of those dough nuts stacked up i actually said…. “i want that”….

   great stuff!

2. Jay Carollo Says:
   September 5th, 2008 at 9:48 pm

   As a Croton Falls native and former classmate of Wayne Outhouse, I found the story and photos a ‘trip back home’ through the internet. I’m happy to see my old school chum being so successful and enlarging the scope of the orchard started so long ago by his forefathers. The sign “OUTHOUSE ORCHARDS” hanging in the sales floor was from many years ago and really reminded me of my family’s trips for apples over 45 years ago. New Yorker’s don’t miss this one, you will not be disappointed!

   Jay Carollo
   Marshalltown, IA
   jaycarollo@mchsi.com

3. Bernadette Mignone Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

   My daughter and I had the unfortunate experience of visiting Outhouse Orchards this past Friday, October 12th. I find the above review to be a bit of a hype. We found the place to be dirty with the poor rabbits crammed into tiny cages with no bedding and full of feces. The advertised “pond” is a mud hole. I was left with the feeling that all this was was a money maker with little regard to ambience and cleanliness. Considering the conditions, I wouldn’t dream of purchasing anything edible there. You can skip Outhouse on your autumn jaunts.

   As an aside, we stopped at Salingers Orchard where we made all our purchases. While definitely on a smaller scale, I have always found it to be well tended and clean.

4. joanne Says:
   October 14th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

   am looking forward for direction how can I get to your place from white plains to your destination

5. Dorothy Says:
   October 17th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

   I was planning on going to Outhouse Orchards next Saturday October 25 2008 with my family and friends but Joanne’s post has me thinking twice.Is there any other visitors out there that can give me a positve feed about this farm?

6. Eugene Says:
   October 20th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

   I am seaching for some idea to write in my blog… somehow come to your blog. best of luck. Eugene

7. jessica james Says:
   October 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 pm

   I went to the Outhouse Orchards on October 11, 2008 with my 4 month old. The Orchard House seems to be the biggest attraction, it seemed like there were hundreds of people packed in at once…. bringing a stroller turned out to be an awful idea. The upside is you can buy almost any variety of apple, pre-picked.. fresh pies are about $15. The pulled pork sandwiches were very good. I’ve heard that the doughnuts are out of this world! I think its a good outing to do, but it is not worth travelling too far out of your way to get there.

8. Amy Says:
   December 5th, 2008 at 10:47 am

   Overall i think that Bernadette Mignone should think twice about what she says. if you think about it the fall time is the biggest and the bussiest time for the orchard. peeople scramming to get their jobs done when the big weekedns come up. dont forget that during the week there are thousands of little kids running around during the school tours making it even more challenging for workers. the rabbits cages get cleaned all the time so maybe you just came on a bad day.

9. Jim Pharo Says:
   September 19th, 2009 at 8:10 am

   To the poster who thought Outhouse was dirty or unpleasant — you’re just plain wrong. It may be revealing that that same poster happens to recommend a lesser competitor.

   I’ve taken my family to Outhouse many times over the years, and have always enjoyed it. It is sort-of a working farm, so the animals are sort of smelly, the goats do pee right on the ground, etc.

   But the ambiance is jovial, the food is in fact wonderful, the apples are great — you cannot go wrong with Outhouse Orchards. Especially if you get some of the donuts.

10. Kat Says:
    September 27th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

    I love going to outhouse, everything there is good, the food is great. The only thing i can do without that is there every year is that God Awful band.

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