On the search for a place to experience a traditional east coast fall, I stumbled across apple picking at Milburn orchards. Although Milburn Orchards isn’t technically in Delaware, it is located just over the Delaware/Maryland border. It is incredibly easy and close to get to, and since Delaware doesn’t have a public apple orchard this is a great option!
Before you go for a U-pick apple adventure, you will need to make reservations for a time slot, which you can find here. They also have tickets you can get for the fall festivals they have on the weekend.
One really neat thing about this apple orchard is that there are different types of apples available for picking each weekend. So you could literally keep going back and experience so many different flavors. They have over 10 different varietals of apples on the farm. You can find the schedule for which apples are available each weekend here. When we went there was 3 apple varietals to pick from.
The parking is free for the apple picking at Milburn Orchards. Once you park you check in at a tent near the parking lot. This is where you decide how big of a bag of apple you want to purchase. They do require that you purchase a bag from them. For example, for 1-2 people the minimum purchase size of bag we could purchase was the small bag. If you are a larger party, then they require that you purchase a bigger bag. But you are welcome to purchase a larger bag if you simply want more apples. If you decide in the orchard that you want more apples, there are additional bags for purchase as well. The small bag ran us $12 dollars and got us about 12 sizable apples. You can see the amount of apples we got in the picture above!
Once you purchase your apple bag, you hop on a wagon trailer that will shuttle you to the location of the apple trees for the week. Then you can walk through the trees and find the best apples to pick. The shuttle return wagon isn’t located far from the drop off and the trees. So you can really choose how much walking you want to do for this adventure.
Overall, the experience is a fun time for all ages. The orchard is beautiful as well. If you want to spend more time at Milburn, there is a farm market, which also has the apple cider doughnuts that people rave about. There is also a fall festival geared towards kids that you could check out.
Looking for other outdoor activities? Check out our other blog posts here.