Apples, pumpkins and different fall enjoyable: Spend a day at Sekapp Orchard – Submit Bulletin

This is not our regular Thursday, however boy it needs to be.

My spouse Beth and I, together with our two teenage daughters Eleanor and Abigail, went to choose apples at Sekapp Orchard on a current weekday night, and we completely loved the expertise.

Sekapp Orchard is simply on the outskirts of Rochester at 3415 Collegeview Road E., and thru the top of October, they keep open to 7 p.m. (opening at 9 a.m.). This made Sekapp the proper location for an after work and college outing for our household. It’s not all the time straightforward to get the 4 of us collectively, so it labored nicely to have an orchard open close by on a weekday evening when our schedules usually tend to align.

While Sekapp is an orchard, it affords all types of produce: decorative squash, pumpkins, lovely mums and jams. The on-site Tasty Crate meals trailer additionally offered treats akin to apple cider donut holes and Kimmie’s do-it-yourself apple pie beignets, together with apple juice and scorching espresso.

Our first cease was within the Sekapp gross sales constructing the place you should buy five-pound luggage of picked apples and even seize some cabbages, peppers, garlic, egg crops, cauliflower, a jar of apple salsa or chilly apple cider. Beth wished some honey, so we purchased a container of honey made by Sekapp’s hives. The bees assist preserve all the greater than 8,000 apple timber within the orchard pollinated.

At the gross sales constructing, we bought quarter peck luggage for every of us to fill. In order to enter the orchard, you should be carrying one of many fillable Sekapp luggage. Each quarter peck bag price $8. You might additionally buy half-peck, peck and half-bushel-sized luggage.

Sekapp Orchard has no less than 23 varieties — referred to as cultivars — of apples together with standard Minnesota choices like Haralson and honeycrisp. Each selection has its personal specific season. Regent, fireplace, empire, Jonathan, honey gold and memento are all styles of apples which are able to be picked in October.

After we purchased our honey and luggage, we walked via a discipline of colourful mums obtainable on the market in the direction of the rows, and rows of pumpkins earlier than we entered the orchard. The rows of mums in purples and golds had been lovely, and I could not assist however cease to admire them.

It was exhausting to absorb all of the totally different sizes, shapes and colours of pumpkins and gourds. Some had been large enough to take a seat on and peach-colored, whereas others match within the palm of your hand and had been good pumpkin orange.

Next to the pumpkins was a big sand play space full of a fleet of yellow, toy dump vehicles and in addition a big tent with seating close to the meals trailer. Just earlier than the orchard entrance there was a enjoyable picture backdrop full with bails of hay to take a seat on and a vivid pink “We picked Sekapp Orchard” signal within the form of a a number of apples.

Parts of the orchard that had been nearest the doorway had been reserved for these with restricted mobility to have simpler entry to selecting. We adopted the indicators and the map we’d been given to stroll up hill and discover the rows of honeycrisp timber.

The map that got here together with our selecting luggage had instructions for the best way to decide apples. The instructions beneficial lifting the apple up and twisting it barely. Pulling fruit down or shaking the department doesn’t work nicely. Keeping the stem on the apples additionally helps them keep recent longer.

We had enjoyable strolling via the lengthy rows of honeycrisp apple timber, and I couldn’t consider what number of apples a few of the branches had. It was exhausting to determine which apples I wished to choose to replenish my quarter-peck bag. In the top, I put about 10 apples in my bag.

Eleanor and Abigail had enjoyable selecting some “miniature” apples, which could have been dolgo crab apples. The solar was starting to set as we picked, and every little thing was caught in golden gentle as we might look out over a downtown Rochester painted in amber hues.

Sekapp Orchard is situated on what has been referred to as Bigelow Hill because it was bought by the Bigelow household round 1900. Sekapp’s land was initially a part of the Chippewa and Sioux nations however was homesteaded in 1856 solely two years after the settlement of Rochester was established. In 1962, the Kappauf household bought the orchard from the Dunn household, and it stays their household enterprise right this moment.

After our apple luggage had been full, we discovered our well past the Sekapp hives and pumpkin and gourd patches to the corn maze. We even startled a white-tailed deer as we headed to the maze entrance. It leaped away in nice bounds. It was enjoyable to wander via the crackling husks of dried corn stalks as we labored our method via looping trails to seek out the corn maze exit.

Finally on the corn maze finish, we headed again via the timber to the orchard store the place our automotive was parked. It was a grand time selecting apples, snapping photographs and having fun with a good looking sundown. As we piled again within the automotive to drive house, the women had been speaking about making an apple pie.

Sekapp Orchard is situated at 3415 Collegeview Road E., Rochester. The orchard is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days every week via the top of October, and from 9 a.m. to six p.m. seven days every week via Dec. 31. For extra data, name 507-282-4544 or go to on-line at

sekapporchard.com.