MadleyHadley is no longer being updated. For similar posts by the author of MadleyHadley, visit Toad in the Garlic.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

A Short Visit to Clarkdale Fruit Farms

I've been reading about Clarkdale Fruit Farms on the CISA website for some time now, and they were one of the farms featured in the PBS special "A Long Row in Fertile Ground," which you should watch, if you haven't done so already -- it's about farms and farming in the Connecticut River Valley.
Anyway, last week I finally took a trip to north Deerfield to check out Clarkdale.  This is what I found:




A beautiful, hilly countryside with fruit trees as far as the eye could see.
The season was at a lower point when I went -- midseason for peaches and the bare beginnings of apples.  Nevertheless, I can't visit a fruit farm without purchasing fruit.  So I did.  (More than a week later, there are now many more varieties of apples available, as well as peaches and pears.)


Peaches, apples, and plums.  Yum.

Duchess apples, which I had never tried before, are supposed to be good for pies.  So I took a bag home and made gluten-free Dutch apple pie.



Quite delicious (and the apples held their form quite well).

Clarkdale Fruit Farm produces more than 100 varieties of apples, peaches, plums, cherries, pears, and grapes -- it's amazing!  They have a farm stand and offer pick-your-own apples after Labor Day.  So many fabulous fruits; I wish I lived a little closer to take advantage of all they have to offer. 

*******

No comments: