Photo by Alexandria Living Magazine
It's apple picking season!
The apple-picking trip west of Alexandria is a fall ritual, and this year it requires a little more homework than usual.
A freeze this past spring hit orchards across Northern Virginia and the northern Shenandoah Valley, and the damage varied sharply from farm to farm. Some orchards are having an ordinary season. Others lost nearly everything. At least two longtime pick-your-own destinations aren't letting anyone pick from the trees at all in 2026.
So the standard advice to call ahead isn't boilerplate this year. It's the whole game. Here's where things stood as of mid-September.
Where you can still pick
Hollin Farms — 1524 Snowden Road, Delaplane
Hollin has apples on the trees and a long list of varieties: Fuji, Empire, Grimes Golden, Golden Delicious, Jonagold and Shizuka, at $25 per peck. The farm is open Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with last admission at 1:30, and closed Mondays and Tuesdays. It posts its availability twice a week, so check the day you plan to drive out.
There's an Alexandria-area connection worth knowing. The farm was started in the early 1950s by the late Robert C. Davenport, who named it for Hollin Hills — the modernist Fairfax County neighborhood he developed in the 1950s and '60s.
Come for apples and you can leave with more. Hollin has dig-your-own potatoes and peanuts, cut-your-own sunflowers, and fall greens including arugula, bok choi, mizuna and collards. A few rules to know before you go: the farm provides containers and doesn't allow outside bags, coolers or backpacks, caps groups at eight, and asks that you not eat fruit in the orchard. 540-623-8854.
Hartland Orchard — 3064 Hartland Lane, Markham
Hartland is picking apples every day from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. — Gala, Golden Delicious and Honeycrisp — at $25 per half bushel or $15 per peck.
The freeze did reach Hartland, just not the apples. Owners Bill and Sharon Green lost the cherry crop entirely this year and called it a bad year for peaches, which sold out early after the freeze cut the harvest.
One thing that trips up first-time visitors: Hartland takes cash and checks only. No credit or debit cards. 540-364-2316.
Great Country Farms — 18780 Foggy Bottom Road, Bluemont
Great Country Farms came through the freeze in better shape than orchards farther west, and it's the pick for families who want a whole afternoon rather than an errand. Apples run $2.99 per pound on top of farm admission, which also buys access to a 15-acre play area, and a wagon ride carries you out to the orchard. First wagon is at 9:15 a.m., last at 4 p.m., and you'll want to arrive by 3:30 to get checked in.
Recent varieties included Golden Delicious, September Fuji, Honey Gold, Crispin and Gala. This is the one to call about first: the farm said in its most recent update that picking would run through Sept. 18, and that if the orchards get picked out, u-pick would pause until Pink Lady apples come in around early November.
If you only want apples and not the play area, the farm market is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and doesn't require admission. 540-554-2073.
Mackintosh Fruit Farm — 1608 Russell Road, Berryville
Go soon. Mackintosh said its u-pick apples are nearly gone and that tree inventory is very limited for the rest of the season. If picking your own is the point of the trip, this is the last call.
There's still plenty of reason to make the drive regardless. The market has Honeycrisp and EverCrisp while they last, with Golden Delicious and Criterion coming in soon. The pumpkin patch is fully stocked, and the farm still has garden vegetables and cut flowers. The Clarke County farm also runs a bakery known for cider doughnuts and a cider room.
Mackintosh is generally open Thursday through Sunday and posts picking updates to social media and a weekly email. Confirm hours before you go. 540-955-6225.
Where you can't pick this year
Both of these farms are open. Neither will let you pull an apple off a tree — and both could use the visit.
Stribling Orchard — 11587 Poverty Hollow Lane, Markham
Stribling, a Virginia Century Farm now in its sixth generation, lost both its peach and apple crops to severe freeze damage. It skipped peach season entirely and is running a limited fall schedule instead, opening on weekends with pre-picked Virginia apples brought in from other state orchards — Gala and Golden Supreme recently — plus its Snack Shack and farm-raised beef.
The views are the same as always, and the orchard invites visitors to pack a picnic. Dates and hours are being announced as they're confirmed, so check before driving out. 540-364-3040.
Marker-Miller Orchards — 3035 Cedar Creek Grade, Winchester
Marker-Miller lost most of its apple crop to April's freezing temperatures and won't offer picking from the trees this fall. Instead, the farm plans to set large bins of apples out in the orchard on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays beginning in September, so you can still walk the rows and fill a bag.
The farm market has multiple varieties — recently Gala, Golden Supreme, Ginger Gold, Premier Honeycrisp, Sweet Mia and Gold Fyre — and the bakery's apple cider doughnuts are the reason a lot of people make the drive in the first place. 540-662-1391.
Before you go
- Check the farm's own website or social media the morning you leave, not the night before. Conditions change fast in a year like this one.
- Ask what's actually ripe. A variety that was ready last September may not be ready this September, and the freeze scrambled the usual order.
- Bring cash. More than one orchard on this list doesn't take cards.
- Know the container rules. Some farms supply bags or buckets and don't allow your own.
- If your favorite orchard isn't picking, go anyway. Buying pre-picked apples, cider, doughnuts or pumpkins is a real way to support a grower through a bad crop year.
