Things To Do In Maine #1: Pick Your Own Produce

Nothing is quite as satisfying as picking your own produce. Screw the super market and spend the afternoon at an apple orchard, bean field, potato field or cranberry bog if you're looking for something to do.

As soon as we got here, my mother declared we were going to the orchard a few miles from the house to pick a bushel of apples and get a gallon of cider. Being mostly bored since settling in, we were in no position to refuse. I remember, as a child, picking our own berries, peas and apples in New Hampshire so the thought of going again dredged up some long-buried childlike glee.

We all piled in the car and headed to McDougal Orchard. Once there, we went in to the farm stand to let the cashier know we wanted to pick. She asked us which kinds of apples we wanted from the list of available varieties on the chalk board, then directed us to the pecks and bushel bags and the baskets used to grab apples in the high branches. We walked around the house to the orchard in the back, consulted the map and then made our way to the rows that had the apples we were looking for. You pick them off the tree, careful not to harm the spurs which will become next year's fruit, and are allowed to sample an apple while you work so long as you eat the whole thing.

The experience got me thinking of other opportunities to harvest your own whatever, an experience that may not necessarily be unique to New England but is certainly characteristic of it. So, here are some ideas for picking your own or at least seeing how it's done and buying from the source that would make any Maine vacation memorable.

Apples - In addition to picking apples, you can often pick and/or buy squash, pumpkins, and other late fall veggies. Sometimes, even, you can buy meat if the orchard has any animals raised for slaughter. Apples are usually available for harvesting as soon as September begins until the end of October. Orchards are abundant in New England so chances are there will be one close by. If you want to roll your apple-picking into another unique experience, do it at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village.

Squash & Pumpkins - A lot of the apple orchards also sell pumpkins and squash but, for one day every October, Harris Farm in Dayton, ME, will wheel you around the property so you can pick your own pumpkins for Halloween.

Potatoes - My mother tells stories of when she lived in Caribou, ME (that's way up there), and she and my father would go to the potato fields after the harvesters had been through and pick up any potatoes for free that the machines had left behind. She also said that the schools closed for an entire month so the children could help with the potato harvest. I'd like to think that her stories are twinged with hyperbole since she lived there in the 70's, a modern enough time that one would think that wouldn't be necessary, but apparently it's true. Anyway, no need to sneak into someone's field to gather the left-behinds. The County is the place to go to pick them but places like Checkerberry Farm make it a little bit easier.

Berries - Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and even blackberries are all ripe for the picking (I've been dying to say it) in just about any part of the state. Look for them in August, June, late July, and July, respectively.

Cranberries - Finding a bog online can be a little difficult and you can't pick your own, but you can go on a tour of the bog and learn how everything is done. Plus, you can cart home as many cranberries as you'd like from the stand. I had romantic notions of jumping into some chest-high waders and making like the men in the Ocean Spray commercials only to be quickly disillusioned by the harsh light of internet research. Try the Massachusetts Cranberry Harvest Festival on the Cape, Moody Farms in Lincolnville, ME, or Bradshaw's Cranberry Farm, Washington County, ME. In the case of the two Maine farms mentioned, call them to make arrangements. They are small operations and don't exactly seek out visitors. Cranberry harvesting is usually done around Columbus Day (mid-October).

Peas & Beans - All that I really recall about picking beans when I was a kid was that my hands turned purple from the natural dyes in the pods. I just remember being terrified that they would stay that way forever. Don't let that dissuade you, I'm sure it washed off with a little soap and water. Besides, I think most varieties are green and that's a far more acceptable color. Check out PickYourOwn.org for places that have peas and beans. Just be sure to make sure the places they have listed are still in business since some of the listings are out-of-date.

Read more after the jump.

Diary of a Move: Part II

I've decided that making plans is an utter waste of time and does nothing but map out what will go horribly, terribly, blaze-of-glory wrong...if our most recent move is any indication.

We chose the U-Pack option thinking we would get most--if not all--of our belongings on the truck but were shattered when, after twelve hours of hauling ass, we had only managed to get a fraction of everything loaded. We sent what we could off to Maine and trudged to get dinner with our friend Phil, all three of us filthy and sore. A woman and her daughter were entering the restaurant at the same time as we were and gave us wide berth. I was never entirely sure if it was because we just smelled that badly or if we looked like psychotic murderers taking a brief respite on a statewide killing spree.

That was on September 29th, the day before my 31st birthday. We still had a substantial portion of the house to pack, as it turned out, and we had to figure out where the hell we were going to put everything that didn't make it on the truck. After a comedy involving two U-haul rentals, an expired driver's license (they expire on your birthday, go figure), a drunk local moving truck driver and a substantial portion of our eating-on-the-road money invested in Thermacare and Bengay, we managed to get on the road on October 5th. That being the day AFTER we were supposed to pick up our U-Pack shipment in Maine. We became intimately familiar with our living room floor, being as we were without furniture or a bed for that week. We also became hopelessly dependent on energy drinks, though I was certain I would die at any moment from a heart attack.

My mother called every day asking if we were on the road yet and it became this sick joke between the two of us. We were barreling through New York before I finally admitted we had left. I suspect she held back tears until I was off the phone.

My generous and loving family picked up (and subsequently paid for) the U-Pack shipment and our generous and loving friend allowed us to take up all of her basement and garage with what was left of our possessions. Despite my fervent efforts to the contrary, we wound up with a lot of junk boxes, wearily thrown together in the last few hours.

Finally on the road, typically later than planned, the trip went pretty smoothly. Perhaps the only superstition I allow myself is the one of Better The Travesty I've Dealt With Than The Travesty To Come or, shorter, Balance In Trip-Making. If I'm preparing for a trip, for instance, and everything goes wrong, I secretly entertain the notion that the scales are tipping (if there were such a thing) to ensure an incident-free ride. If everything goes smoothly leading up, I become resigned to catastrophe. Do I have anything to substantiate this superstition? Of course not! Otherwise, it wouldn't be a superstition. Therefore, because the days, weeks and months leading up to the move were the experiential equivalent to dragging my delicate private parts through broken glass, I was convinced that the cross-country drive would be an asphalt orgasm.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case but we didn't have any major problems save traffic delays and made it to Maine in one piece. Our U-Pack shipment, however, did not but I suppose that was our fault for not securing everything as recommended. There were only a few minor casualties (that we've discovered so far) and the car, amazingly enough, is still running without complaint.

Read more after the jump.