NORTH ANDOVER — As September marches along, local farms and orchards are ready for visitors eager for the highlight of the pick-your-own season: apples.
For Boston Hill Farm owners Ben and Cheryl Farnum and their children, the season is a labor of love. The ultimate reward is seeing people enjoy the farm which has been in the Farnum family for 12 generations, with the 13th generation working there now.
While the facade of Boston Hill Farm, 1370 Turnpike St., sits along busy Route 114, its three orchards are nestled on 20-acres of scenic land, hidden from the bustling road. The farm also offers strawberry and peach picking throughout the season.
The farm’s apple trees are ready for picking, with families getting a head start this past week on the first picks of fruit off any of the thousands of trees on the property.
Families grab a peck or half-bushel bag, with strollers or a farm-provided Radio Flyer wagon, and travel down the gravel path to the main orchard.
Cheryl Farnum said there are a lot of smiling faces leaving the orchard after a peaceful afternoon of picking and picnicking, and usually wagons – and strollers – full of apples instead of kids.
“We are just a small family looking to create a good experience for visitors with high-quality fruits for their picking,” she said.
The orchard’s charm comes in part because of the family’s hands-on approach and its refusal to commercialize the property, she added.
“Visitors are looking to enjoy the peace and nature,” Cheryl Farnum said.
Two of her three daughters, Laura and Sarah Farnum, can be found helping out on the farm or making cider doughnuts for sale at the farm stand.
On any given day, the family can be found out tending to trees, mowing fields and otherwise maintaining the orchard but they are never to busy to welcome apple pickers.
It’s no frills, with row on row of trees bearing any one of 15 apple varieties, including Macoun and Jonagold. Adventurous visitors can cut through the woods to the farm’s South Field orchard.
“It’s one of those things that the people who know it exists want to have the adventure to get to it,” Cheryl Farnum said.
This season, Boston Hill Farm has a great crop despite the failure of some trees to bloom. Ben Farnum said there are likely different factors at play. Trees may have overproduced last year as the farm enjoyed a bountiful apple harvest in 2023 and it’s common for such trees to produce less the following season, he said.
While there are a few bare trees here and there, most are full. “The fruit is phenomenal,” Cheryl Farnum said.
The apples satisfy whatever visitors are looking for, whether it’s apples for snacking or for cooking. They range in size, sweetness and bite.
“Or you can just throw them all together and make a great pie,” she said.
While apple picking may have just begun, she said the apples will get even sweeter as the days and weeks go by.
As the fall progresses, pickers also get to take in not only sweet apples, but the fall foliage as well.
“You don’t get that at every farm,” Ben Farnum said.
Beautiful weather has kept the fruit growing and people coming to the farm all summer.
“It’s hard work, but rewarding when you see people enjoy the orchards and leave with smiles,” Laura Farnum said.