Farm Stands, Orchards & Pick-Your-Own

Twenty-three farm stands, U-pick orchards, and CSAs across fifteen counties — this is the most core-to-the-brand guide in the whole series, closest to what the Almanac was built to catalog in the first place. Some of these farms have been in the same family for eleven generations; others are nonprofit projects donating a fifth of everything they grow.

The Warwick orchard cluster, Orange County

Bellvale Farms Creamery is a seven-generation dairy since 1819 atop Mount Peter, ranked the #2 ice cream parlor in the country on TripAdvisor. Masker Orchards has run a drive-right-to-the-tree picking experience since 1913, and Pennings Farm Market & Orchard anchors 100 acres with a garden center, grill, and beer garden. Lawrence Farms Orchards in Newburgh offers Orange County's most diverse U-pick list, and Minkus Family Farms in New Hampton grows half of all the onions produced in New York State on Black Dirt land.

Dutchess & Putnam

Fishkill Farms is a 270-acre organic orchard in the Morgenthau family for over 100 years, home to Treasury Cider. Migliorelli Farm Stand traces back to 1933 broccoli rabe seeds carried from Italy, now growing 130-plus varieties on conservation-protected river-valley land. Poughkeepsie Farm Project is a mission-driven nonprofit farm donating a fifth of its harvest, and Ryder Farm in Brewster has been farmed by the same family since 1795.

Rockland & the river counties

The Orchards of Concklin in Pomona is the oldest working farm in Rockland County — eleven generations of the same family since 1711. Boehm Farm in Climax has grown apples since 1903, and Catskill Mountain Country Store in Windham has anchored Route 23 since 1994 with its own Happy Sappy Maple Museum out back.

Columbia & the CSA belt

Hawthorne Valley Farm & Farm Store is a 900-acre Demeter-certified Biodynamic farm running since 1972, and Roxbury Farm CSA is one of the largest and longest-running CSAs in the Northeast, serving 930-plus members since 1990.

Elsewhere in the belt

• Weaver's Farm Market — Morris, Otsego County. A 4,000-square-foot Amish-run market carrying goods from 60-plus local farmers and bakers.
• Featherbed Lane Farm and Pitney Meadows Community Farm — Saratoga County. Featherbed is the county's only draft-horse-powered CSA; Pitney Meadows runs a 24/7 honor-system farm stand feeding a Farm to Pantry program.
• Buhrmaster Farms — Scotia, Schenectady County. Family-run since 1946.
• Barber's Farm — Middleburgh, Schoharie County. Six generations since 1857, farming 150-plus acres with mobile satellite stands across the Capital District.
• Battenkill Valley Creamery, Hicks Orchard, and Sheldon Farms — Washington County. Hicks is New York's oldest U-pick orchard (since 1905); Sheldon has farmed the Battenkill since 1845.
• Honest Weight Food Co-op — Albany. Member-owned since 1976, the Capital District's largest local/organic grocery co-op.

A few practical notes

U-pick season peaks differently by crop — strawberries in June, peaches in midsummer, apples and pumpkins from Labor Day through October — so check each farm's current picking list before a special trip. Several of these (Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Pitney Meadows, Roxbury Farm) run sliding-scale or SNAP-friendly CSA options worth knowing about beyond the pick-your-own draw.

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Eleven generations on one farm, half the state's onions from another — the directory's original subject, twenty-three ways.