🍎 Your apple picking guide | Outdoorsy Newsletter

Apple-picking season is here.

The first day of fall is just around the corner, so look out for our answers to your equinox questions, like when to change your clocks (and how this impacts your “biological clock”). But first, let’s sip on cider and pick apples at a handful of orchards near Philadelphia.

☀️ Your weekend weather outlook: Solid for outdoorsy activities. Expect some clouds today, and mostly clear skies Saturday and Sunday with lows in the 60s and highs in the mid-80s.

— Paola Pérez (outdoorsy@inquirer.com)

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Warm apple cider. Freshly baked pies. Unbelievably soft doughnuts.

If you’re looking for these and other beloved fall staples, you’re in luck. There are more than a few orchards near Philly where you can pick your own apples for peak autumnal fun, including:

🍏 Linvilla Orchards, where you can fill a two-quart bag with your choice from 25 varieties of apples, and bite into plenty of baked goods (📍 Brookhaven, Pa. about 50 min. away)

🍎 Duffield’s Farm, where a combo ticket saves you a seat for a hayride after you fill your bag with apples — and don’t forget the doughnuts! (📍 Sewell, N.J., about 40 min. away)

🍏 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 (📍 Morgantown, Pa. about 1 hour 30 min. away)

🧺 Paola’s pro-tips: Call ahead or check social media to see what your orchard has available the day of your visit. Some spots let you bring your own containers, but others sell their own so you can haul your goodies home.

See the full list of 10 orchards we’re visiting this season.

🎤 Now I’m passing the mic to Jason Nark. You’ll always find his work here.

WILDWOOD CREST — The office was overcast Saturday morning, the wind pushing dark tides over a mostly empty beach, when Robert Morier emerged from the waves in a wetsuit, on his way to work.

Morier, a 46-year-old professor at Drexel University’s Close School of Entrepreneurship, changed into a bathing suit and T-shirt, grabbed a jug of water, and pushed a metal lifeguard stand toward the surf. At 10 a.m., he climbed to his seat and scanned the turbulent Atlantic, one last weekend of research to prove that lifeguarding can teach lifelong leadership and communication skills and glow up a young professional’s resumé more than scooping ice cream on the boardwalk.

“There is no other job you can get at 16 that gives you this much responsibility and forces you to communicate with adults like lifeguarding,” Morier said. “I think more students should become lifeguards instead of focusing on getting traditional internships in high school. Lifeguarding offers a more dynamic environment that cultivates leadership versus being behind a desk.”

Morier, who grew up in Wildwood Crest and lifeguarded there decades ago, returned this summer for hands-on research on how the beach patrol there “fosters innovation and leadership.” — Jason Nark

Keep reading to see what the Drexel professor learned while moonlighting as a lifeguard.

🎤 Jason says: This was taken at Bartram’s Garden in Southwest Philadelphia.

One word: Bliss. You can watch and listen to this serene scene here.

Well before the leaves start to show off their more colorful “outfits,” some people are already eager to eat pumpkin spice-flavored everything. I can enjoy a PSL, but I love a good chai even more, and always leave room for cinnamon and snickerdoodle.

Fall favorites aside, here’s a brief primer to ring in autumn:

📅 Check your calendar: Sunday, Sept. 22 at exactly 8:43 a.m. marks the first official day of fall.

⏰ Change your clocks back: We “gain” one hour of sleep when Daylight Saving Time ends on Nov. 3 at 2 a.m.

💡 Fun fact: “Equinox” comes from the Latin words aequus (meaning “equal”) and nox (meaning “night”).

Let Tony Wood fill you in on how standard time impacts our “circadian rhythm,” and more on the historical significance of this seasonal shift.

What do you like to do outside this time of year? Do you have any traditions or events you can’t miss? Let me know how your apple-picking adventures go.

“The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer. One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider.” — Jane Hirshfield

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