Gettin’ Carried Away

Fall is, without a doubt, my favorite season. In Chicago, the warm summer breezes evolve into crisp autumn chills. The fresh green leaves on the trees begin to change into bright yellows, vibrant oranges and radiant reds. October happens to be my favorite month. And sometimes, you don’t have to travel far to discover new, exciting places.

I live near Chicago. The city and its surrounding suburbs boast hundreds of activities year-round. So when my favorite season arrives each year, I start planning day trips to the Loop, to suburban farmer’s markets and to family farm lands. My first Fall activities were apple picking and pumpkin patching (as I like to call it) at the Kuipers Family Farm in Maple Park, IL.

I usually work on Sundays, but I was lucky enough to have the day off on one of the most beautiful days this October. Some of my co-workers and I originally planned to go to the Chicago Bears football game, but tickets were rather expensive. Instead, we chose to spend the day at Kuipers searching the orchard for juicy apples and scouring several patches for perfectly round pumpkins.

Kuipers Family Farm is nestled a little over an hour from the Loop on 230 sprawling acres of open land! The best features of the farm during September and October include the U-Pic Apple Orchard and the U-Pic Pumpkin Patch. A small store offers a host of goodies including spices, jams, syrups, holiday decorations and more! There’s also a bakery inside the store. Freshly baked doughnuts and pies are on the menu, as well as pasteurized apple cider.

A combo ticket for the orchard and the pumpkin patch costs $14. This pass entitles you to a short hay ride around the orchard, a 1/4 peck bag of U-Pic apples and entrance into the pumpkin patch. Because the apples had already ripened earlier in the month, staff members of the farm did most of the picking long before we entered the orchard. So instead of picking apples from the trees, we were searching through wooden crates. The experience was still great for me, though, and I loaded up my 1/4 peck bag with as many Honey Crisp apples as I could carry!

On to the pumpkin patch! One thing you should know before paying for the patch is that each pumpkin costs $.39 per pound. There are no signs posted at the entrance, and we didn’t figure this out until we exited the patch at a barn, complete with a weigh station and several checkout counters. My pumpkins were a great price, though! And I was able to wander around two separate patches to find them! I walked away with three 15-pound pumpkins and four baby pumpkins for about $26.

Finally, the best part of the farm, for me anyway, is the store! The bakery’s specialty is a locally famous apple cider doughnut topped with one of four coatings: cinnamon sugar, chocolate glazed, vanilla glazed and apple spice glazed. I ordered a chocolate and a vanilla, and boy was I satisfied! The doughnut just melts into your mouth upon the first bite. And if you are lucky enough to get to the farm in the morning, you can enjoy warm, gooey toppings on the fresh-out-of-the-oven doughnuts.

I also purchased a pound of decadent chocolate fudge, a trio of caramel apples and a glass bottle of Vidalia onion tomato salad dressing. I could spend hundreds of dollars in that store on baked goods and fresh spices, dressings, syrups and more!