Have Twins, Will Travel

Stow, Mass – I can’t believe it has been six years since I posted about Honey Pot Hill. Apparently, life changed a lot when the twins started school. Then we had to start limiting our adventures to weekends, when everyone else in the state is trying to have adventures too. Ah, the early years: so full of possibility and fun. Those endless hours of free time were dreamy… and also nightmarish… But I digress…

We have been back to Honey Pot Hill in recent years, but it lost a bit of its charm when we had to fight the crowds on a Saturday. This year, of course, everything is different. The kids’ school schedule is, shall we say, flexible, and we are always on the lookout for destinations for our pandemic field trips. Plus, we have a fantastic group of friends and parents who are keen to accompany us on our outings. Thankfully, there is plenty of room for social distancing in the apple orchard! So we headed to Honey Pot Hill on a Friday afternoon to get us some apples and have some fun.

I think this is the first year that our main activity at Honey Pot Hill was actually picking apples. In the past, we often spent most of our time with the farm animals or in the maze, and just bought our apples from the farm store. But this year, the kids were super excited about sampling the different varieties and filling their bags with their favorites. (Also, climbing ladders!) We did have to make a reservation for our picking time, so Honey Pot Hill is limiting numbers in the orchard. We had no problem finding our own section of the orchard with few other people competing for apples or air.

After we filled our bags with McIntosh and Golden Delicious apples (20 pounds!), our group moved to the farm yard. The littlest kids went straight to the animals; the parents set up our picnic; and the older kids disappeared into the hedge maze. I think our kids would be ready for the Big Green Monster Maze (the largest in New England!), also at Honey Pot Hill. Unfortunately, it’s only open on weekends – and we had read that the wagon ride is crowded – so we did not go for it. Our eight kids pretty much took over the mini hedge maze, though, racing to the center and playing tag.

We finished off with sandwiches, apple cider, and (of course) caramel apples. A near perfect New England fall outing and pandemic field trip.