🍎 Let’s go apple-picking | Outdoorsy Newsletter

Apple-picking season is here. Today, we’ll take on apple-picking adventures, dispelling a myth about where chocolate milk comes from (but meet some Pennsylvania cows that absolutely love chocolate), and see what’s in store for fall in our region.

📮 I want to know what you like to do outdoors during the fall. Do you have any seasonal traditions or annual events you can’t miss? Tell me about your experience by emailing me back.

☔ Your weekend weather outlook: Remember Ophelia? Her persistent remains are forecast to add juice to some incoming rains. Flood advisories are in effect across the Philly region this chilly Friday, and Saturday should be another dreary day with a chance of showers. Sunday should redeem itself with partly sunny skies and a high near 77.

— Paola Pérez

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Sweater weather means it’s time to bake pies and sip on some cider. But first, we need some apples.

Thankfully, there are more than a few orchards near Philadelphia where you can grab your own apples for peak autumnal fun, including:

🍎 Duffield’s Farm, where you can pick a bagful of Red and Golden Delicious, Stayman, and Rome apples; then take a hayride and snack on apple cider doughnuts

🍎 Terhune Orchards, with an apple orchard offering four dozen varieties — and no entrance fee — plus an upcoming fall festival filled with family fun

🍎 Weaver’s Orchard, which grows a wide selection of apples on some 18,000 apple trees, and there’s a market with everything from apple cider pressed on-site to apple dumplings

Get all the details on the 11 places to go pick-your-own apples this season.

🎤 Now we’re passing the microphone to Jason Nark. You’ll always find his work here.

An unmistakable smell swirled in the dusty air during a recent, windy morning on a Lancaster County farm.

Red Knob Farm, a dairy operation a few miles north of the Maryland state line, is home to more than 1,500 cows, so there was that odor to contend with, of course. Workers had recently uncovered a large swath of winter rye that had been pickling under plastic too, but there was something more subtle wafting around, beyond the barns.

It was a brown powder, piled high inside a commodity shed. If you looked close enough, there were flecks of orange and yellow. It smelled sweet, like chocolate: Hershey’s Kit Kat to be specific.

“I think these are some broken-up Reese’s Pieces shells, " said Jared Galbreath, Red Knob’s dairy manager. “I’d say most of this is Kit Kat, though.”

Keep reading on the very real and creative circle-of-life scenario with one of the world’s most prized treats. — Jason Nark

Autumn is looking decent for the Philly region and around Pennsylvania this year.

How about the foliage forecast? It’s complicated, but the general outlook calls for a “fine” season.

Will the northern lights be visible here? When will the sun set? Keep reading for more observations to mark the season, plus a fun fact from history to boot.

🎤 Jason says: My daughter and I often sit on my bed and stare at this giant Oak tree a few yards over. There’s a red-tailed hawk that lives in it. You have to get your outdoors fix wherever you can.

🧘🏽‍♀️ Agreed.

Let’s hear from Marion Leary of Northern Liberties, with a heartfelt perspective on Mother Nature’s impact:

“The nurture part of the ‘nature vs. nurture’ debate postulates that one’s environment and experiences contributes to a person’s identity as much as one’s genes. My environment certainly has. Growing up in the gritty city of Philadelphia has defined who I am — to an extent. I often only thought of myself as a “city kid” and, therefore, rarely engaged in the environment outside of the city streets.

Yet, over the past 30 years, by being open to being outside — literally and figuratively — outside in nature and outside of my comfort zone — has allowed me to explore the extremes of nature up close and personal. The more time I spend being nurtured by the flora and fauna, bathing in the spirit of forests, and partaking in all the outdoors have to offer has changed me and rejuvenates me. It resets what I think I can and can’t do, and who I am as a person. There is no activity that compares to the rewards that come from these experiences; things you can only see, smell, hear, and engage with by going a little further and a bit more off the beaten trail, by trekking out of the city and into nature.”

This is why we’re here. Thank you endlessly for this grounding reminder of the importance, and the healing and rewarding qualities, of our earthly sphere.

📮 Give us a review of your outdoors experience for a chance to be featured in this newsletter by emailing me back.

“Autumn exists to remind us that things must end to begin again.”

Until next time.