Discover Fresh Apples: New Mexico's Best Orchards!
An excellent way to eat locally, support farms, and get outdoors on a gorgeous autumn day is to spend the day picking apples. Take a trip to your local farm or orchard to grab your favorites. These farms have habitually provided fresh apples to their communities year in and year out. Some allow visitors to pick apples from the trees, while others let you pick from amazing baskets filled with them at farm stands. Here are the best apple orchards in New Mexico!
Cadwallader Mountain Farms and Orchard, Mountain Park, NM
In springtime, the blossoming apple trees at this small family farm are beautiful and fragrant. In fall, the apples, the result of those lovely blossoms, are beautiful and delicious! In business since 1943, the Cadwallader Family knows the u-pick business and makes it user-friendly.
Hays Honey & Apple Farm, Bosque Farms, NM
The wide range of apple tree orchards here is to keep the bees at this large honey farm happy. Blushing Golden, Roam Beauty, Stark Crimson, Stayman Winesap, Granny Smith, Ultra Macintosh, and the unique Arkansas Blacks are in late October. The bees keep the trees pollinated, which results in some great fruit, and the apple blossoms make for some really sweet honey. All in all, this family-operated farm is keeping nature in balance.
Manzano Mountain Retreat and Apple Ranch, Estancia, NM
In the 1700s, the Spanish arrived in this area of the state and brought with them apple trees. That is how the nearby town of Manzano, which means apple in Spanish, got its name. For more than 45 years, this apple ranch has kept that apple heritage alive, producing more than 4,000 bushels of apples. You can’t pick them from the trees, but you can hand-pick them from the overflowing baskets on hand.
U-Pick Mesilla Valley Apple Orchard, Las Cruces, NM
Four-hundred trees … how about them apples! Between August and September, they’re yours for the picking, too at this old-fashioned farm. Orchard-ripened apples are sweeter and juicier, better for eating and cooking with. Take the family for a hunt for the best and brightest apples in the orchard. Red Delicious and Jonathans available in season. Don’t leave without picking up a home-made apple pie.
Nichols Ranch and Orchards, La Luz, NM
This beautiful ranch lies on the slopes of the local Sacramento Mountains, with 16 acres of apple trees, some of which were planted by one of the first homesteaders in the early 1900s. It’s a good thing apple trees are long-lived, about 100 years on average. This farm has Honeycrisp, Stayman Winesap, New Mexico Red Delicious, Yellow and Golden Delicious, Fuji, Gala, Black Twig and Jonathans. Depending on the weather, some or all will be available for picking.
Alary Farms, Corrales, NM
An apple a day keeps the doctor away, so the saying goes. Just imagine how you’d feel if you bought a bushel of fresh, locally-grown apples? In the pink … Pink Beauty, that is. The family has been successfully farming the land here since 1879. You can’t pick apples from the trees, but you can hand-select the best harvest at the small on-site store.
