I go apple 'picking' at my local farmer's market :-) They bring in apples both from local orchards as well as from the commercial orchards east of the mountains. Gravensteins are by far my favorite but not a commercial crop and with a very short harvest window. Some years they are readily available and others not so much.

My lifelong favorite is Pippin. It was common as a commercial apple when I was younger, much less so now. Fortunately a family farm/orchard not too far away still grows them and I can get them there.

Second choice is an apple I learned about in upstate NY, the Northern Spy. Its appearance is different from Pippins but the taste is similar, sweet and tangy and crunchy.

Both are great for cooking as well as eating fresh.

I also like Northern Spy! They’re not the prettiest apples, but yes, they are sweet and tart and crunchy. I use them for making crisps and pies. Unfortunately, due to late spring freezes, our local orchard doesn’t have any for picking. No honeycrisp either, which is another favorite.

We've already been. We picked Gravensteins and Bartlett pears last week, which are ready mid to end of August in Oregon. I'm making my second batch of applesauce as we speak. Gravs are great applesauce apples, as are Jonagold, which a few orchards here grow for fall picking.

When I lived near Sacramento CA, we'd go every year to the Sierra foothills to an area called Apple Hill. There we picked red and golden delicious. There was an orchard that had apple cider donuts and they'd fry them when you placed your order. We'd buy a dozen for the hour long ride home. There's nothing like a donut fresh from the oil.

In early July I like to go get Yellow Transparent and/or Wealthy - my favorite pie apples.

In fall my favorite was Stayman Winesap. The orchard we went to every year when I was young, and that I continued stopping at every Thanksgiving weekend when I went back to my hometown, had lots of old favorites along with the Winesap - Baldwin, Grimes Golden, Rome Beauty, Newtown Pippin, Jonathon & Macintosh. That orchard also had the best cider - full, rich, not processed tasting.. The orchard's owners retired, sold the place and the trees were all cut down to convert to a different crop about 20 years ago..

I don't go to pick myself. I have several apple trees in my back yard that are just starting to produce - if I can continue to keep the squirrels and racoon off of the remaining apples, I will have 4 different varieties, anywhere from 2 to 10 of each. Snow Sweet, Haralson, Winecrisp, and I think the Gala.

We had such a fun day picking apples and grapes last weekend. Nothing fancy, just crab apples and wild grapes, but they are on my mother's land and it was just a fun way to get her outside (she's 89) and enjoying the last of summer with her grand kids.

We boiled them all up for juice and then froze in baggies. I may make jelly when I have more time, but we really love the juice mixed in drinks and just on its own so there may not be any left for jelly.

We've never gone for U-pick apples. We have picked them, but at friends, or from trees on FIL's farm. Nephew is living there now but the trees came out (front yard) when the house was taken down to studs and completely remodeled several years ago.

DH likes Delicious - I've tried to steer him to more tart and flavorful apples over the years. I like Granny Smith, Fuji, Gala, others. For years we made a trip in Fall (too early right now) to a Farmers market where they would have Sekai Ichi. Loved those, and I did buy a tree and put it out on the family farm. It hasn't really produced much. Yet, anyway.

We've in the past had a fall bear running through the yards, we happen to be in between a couple of neighbors with apples that the bear was picking, so I hesitate to plant apple here.

I buy mine from the store. I used to live near orchards. Most are not u-pick. I love to get the fresh, tangy ones. They are great for dehydrating and making homemade applesauce.

This brings back memories My father used to always take us here and there Every fall we went upstate NY from down here in the city.

We’d bring back McIntosh.

We have a Fuji tree in our back yard, and so that is what we pick. The tree came with the house, and I don't know how old it is, but it produces a lot of apples. We juice some of them, usually enough for a gallon or two of cider and dehydrate whatever is leftover.

My favorite things to make with fresh apples are German apple pancakes, torte di mele, and apple pie. I'm not a huge apple fan, and so I do not buy them at the store or farmers' markets, but I will use them and eat them if I have them.

We are about to enter the season for white sapote, as we have that in our back yard as well, and it is also a prolific producer of fruit.

Funny you should ask. I went out in light rain early this morning to beat the deer to apples that had dropped from my two McIntosh trees. Because we don't spray, the Golden Delicious nearby look rather ugly, although they taste good. But the Macs are large and red and shiny and crisp. Definitely one of my favorites.

My other favorite is King. I never heard of this variety until we moved here in 1975. At the time we had two enormous King trees. The apples are very large, have a very slightly greasy look on the outside, and are so delicious. Best baked apples ever! Sadly, we're down to one King tree now, and it's in increasingly fragile condition, having lost two of its four massive sections. The remaining sections are extremely tall; I worry about them in heavy rains such as we've had recently.

Our other apple trees are Cortland, Empire, Stayman Winesap, Russet, and an unnamed yellow July apple. All good!

The apple crop this year is magnificent. I think it's been five years since we've seen so many apples on our trees. I better make room in the freezer.

Yep...love Golden Delicious for applesauce (and eating), Northern Spy makes the best

Apple Pie ever. Used to find them in MI years back, but, can't find them around here, lately.

I like Red Delicious for eating..if you pick them early enough before they go soft. Like the

Red Delicious in whipped cream fruit salads.

Cortlands and Galas too, for eating.

Ginger Gold -- the first apple to be harvested each year around here. Refreshing after months of store-boughten apples stored for months or shipped in from who knows where.

I don't pick apples myself. Rather I depend on the farmers market and local food coop, and a trip or two or three to a nearby orchard. Over the years I've read or heard of many of the old-time varieties, but I haven't had regular enough exposure to them to have a favorite.

I'm a bit suspicious of apples with "new" names ... have they been developed with looks, shipping, harvest weight, or processing considerations in mind, instead of taste.

I’ve gone a couple times, it’s a novelty but I have no use for so many apples. They tend to rot well before I use them up. I guess I store them wrong.

First time I remember going was with my inlaws, in NJ. Tractor ride to the orchard. Very quaint. On the way back the driver cut a corner too tight, a sawn branch caught my FIL in the back and took him out. We helped him off the trailer and he was in a lot of pain, huge swollen bruise, laid out on a bench and it took a good while before he could get up and into the car. Staff didn’t seem concerned about it. Last year we went to a place in the Hamptons. Several varieties, slim pickings though, meh. Easier just to buy them.

My mom always has apples on her grocery list. I laugh because she asks for both ”green apples and eating apples.” I had to clarify what she meant the first time, as green apples are pretty much the only ones we eat.

The only 'apple picking' in my neck of the woods would have to be in a grocery store. And it's only been in the last 20 years or so that really good, fresh, crisp apples could be found there. How I wish I could once again have a Pippin, Northern Spy, or my all time favorite, Winesap! Alas, none of those have ever been seen around here. But over the years, as the stores have finally began to offer something besides last years' apples, I have developed a liking for Fuji, Jonagold, and occasionally Honeycrisp for eating out of hand. I usually use a mix of 3 or 4 different varieties for pie, depending on what is available.

When I was growing up, my parents used to go to an orchard and get the windfalls, because they were cheaper. My mother used them for applesauce that she canned and for pies.

Bpath, what is 'apple mash' that the orchards sold?

Rusty

You can go apple picking at Gizdich Ranch here in my area. They have several varieties of apples you can pick or just buy them by the bag in the barn store. There are lots of roadside stands from smaller farms that sell by the bag, usually $5 a bag. In the 44 years we have lived here we have seen lots of orchards neglected or ripped out. It is sad to see them go.

More information:Gizdich Ranch story

ETA information

No apple orchards here in FL, but in 2019 I visited friends in CT and got to do it for the first time ever. There were a number of places in the area and we chose one that was on a hill and it was so danged blustery and cold we hurried as fast as we could and picked a peck of as many different kinds as we could, then went home and made pies. Friends have one of those spiral peeler/slicers which was cool, but messy. The pies were delish 😊

Gizdich is the place I was referring to (that we drive to) without naming it, the family orchard that has Pippin apples.

Their Dutch Apple pies, made on-site with their own apples, are heavenly. It's been a favorite of ours for decades.

There was a story in Thursday's Dispatch about the disappearing peach orchards up at Lake Erie - land going to development. Focus was on a family who has replanted and built up a good business, and recently discovered that their son isn't interested in maintaining it. Of the other orchard owners on their island, none have children who will continue.

Sad - best peaches I ever had came from there.

Elmer - If you're referring to the Orange Pippin apple I would suggest you grow one or two of that tree. We have one in our yard that's dying from a lack of sunlight caused by too many other trees. I did manage to grow 2 from cuttings and the cuttings have made it thru two summers. It's the only apple that both my wife and I enjoy. It's not considered easy to grow; the reason I suggested growing two.

The term pippin refers to a tree grown from seed.

As far as picking apples it's unclear to me how many orchards will be open this season for picking. I looked online and my orchard has no updates on their website or their facebook page. I also looked at a public cider press and they seem unclear whether they will press this year.