Visit a Local Orchard or Cider Mill This Season! Written by Jon Waiksnoris, Marketing Intern   It’s fall in the Northeast, and apple flavors are back in popular taste! Now that the weather has finally cooled down, enjoying a beautiful day at the orchard picking apples and tasting cider is the perfect way to celebrate the season. At Price Chopper & Market 32 we love this time of year, because we team up with a variety of local farms who supply our stores with home.grown. apples and cider every fall. Rulfs Orchard in Peru, NY has been a local partner of ours for over 20 years! Originally a dairy farmer, Robert Rulfs added a cider mill to his farm in 1983 and never looked back. Today, the orchard offers many different types of produce, apples, and berries. Featuring pick-your-own Macintosh apples, a corn maze and fresh baked goods, Rulfs Orchard is definitely worth a visit this fall! Established in 1911, Beak & Skiff Apple Orchard is the result of onion farmer George Skiff and dairy farmer Andrew Beak, joining forces to enter the apple business. Located in Lafayette, NY, Beak & Skiff offers a variety of apples for picking. They also produce delicious cider in their mill using fresh apples exclusively grown on their orchard! Cold Hollow Cider Mill is a Vermont cider mill we’ve partnered with for more than 20 years! In 1974, Eric and Francine Chittenden began making apple cider for friends, soon after, they realized they should open up a business. They wanted to make cider to distribute to supermarkets, and become a Vermont tourist attraction in the meantime. Today, through their own old-fashioned style, Cold Hollow Cider Mill is both one of New England’s top producers and one of Vermont’s biggest tourist attractions. Located in Altamont, NY, Altamont Orchards has been a family operated farm in the Capital Region for over 49 years! Dating all the way back to 1792, the farm has been leased and sold numerous times. However, in 1967 the Abbruzzese family became the first family to work and live on the farm. They still own the farm today, promising to raise and produce only the finest products for their community and customers. Be sure to check out their farm market featuring, apples, apple cider donuts, pies, breads, pastries, and more! Check out the info below to find out more about our local apple partners and what they have to offer!

Rulfs Orchard: 531 Bear Swamp Rd, Peru, NY / http://www.rulfsorchard.com/ Walhowdon Farm & Orchards: 33 Walhowdon Way, Lebanon, NH Hudson River Fruit: 65 Old Indian Rd, Milton, NY / https://www.hudsonriverfruit.com/ Sunrise Orchards: 1287 N Bingham St, Cornwall, VT / https://sunriseorchards.com/ Crunch Time Apple Growers: Wolcott, NY / http://www.crunchtimeapplegrowers.com/ Jaeschke’s Orchard: 23 Gould Rd, Adams. MA / http://jaeschkesorchard.com/ Brace’s Orchard: 444 Brace Rd, Dallas, PA Beak & Skiff: 2708 Lords Hill Rd, Lafayette, NY / http://beakandskiff.com/ Breezelands Orchards: 1791 Southbridge Rd, Warren, MA / http://www.breezelandsorchards.com/ Mayer Brothers Cider Mill: 1540 Seneca Creek Rd, Buffalo, NY / http://mayerbrothers.com/cider-mill-store/ Fowler Farms: 10273 Lummisville Rd, Wolcott, NY / http://www.fowlerfarms.com/ Rogers Orchard: 336 Long Bottom Rd, Southington, CT / http://www.rogersorchards.com/default.aspx Cold Hollow Cider Mill: 3600 Waterbury Stowe Rd, Waterbury Center, VT / http://www.coldhollow.com Altamont Orchards: 6654 Dunnsville Rd, Altamont, NY / http://altamontorchards.com/

(more…) Written by Sara Lilkas Fall has become synonymous with pumpkin season, for reasons far beyond the classic Jack-O-Lantern! I think it’s fair to say that today’s consumer is seriously pumped-up about pumpkin! From pumpkin flavored drinks and baked goods, to pumpkin ice cream and scented candles, there is no shortage of this fall-favorite flavor! Pumpkins are great for decorating or even eating! Have you ever baked pumpkin seeds after carving a pumpkin for Halloween They’re delicious and super easy! Simply separate the seeds from the meat of the pumpkin, put them on a greased cookie sheet, add some salt and bake at 300° F for about 45 minutes or until golden brown! Pumpkins do not have to be limited to the spooky happenings surrounding Halloween either. They can also be used for your seasonal fall and Thanksgiving decorating. Pumpkins can be hollowed out and used as vases or they look great painted with stencils, glitter, or monograms to fit in with the rest of your decorations. I’m a huge fan of adding pumpkin to everything possible the months of September-November, and if it spills over into December a little bit that’s fine too. (I would eat pumpkin year round if it was available!)  I love adding pumpkin to pancakes, waffles, bread (for toast), and muffins. I found that learning to cook and bake is a lot more fun when attempting to make foods that I really enjoy. This year I decided to try and make pumpkin muffins instead of purchasing them like I normally do. I tried this recipe here and they turned out great! Plus, you get the added bonus of the apartment smelling amazing when baking muffins fresh at home! Now the only thing better than pumpkin would be the addition of chocolate. My next baking attempt will have to be Pumpkin Swirl Brownies. Brownies are my go-to favorite baked good regardless of the season, but adding pumpkin to the mix will probably result in me eating the whole batch, by myself, in one sitting, it’s fine. My pumpkin obsession has grown with time and age, since now there are also many varieties of pumpkin flavored beer! It seems that almost every brewery, no matter how large or small, puts out a pumpkin flavored beer for the fall. Each variety uses its own unique blend of spices to bring out the pumpkin flavor, so it’s exciting to try the different varieties and discover the many flavors! Two of my favorites are the Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale and Magic Hat’s Wilhelm Scream. As always, please enjoy responsibly! What are your favorite pumpkin flavored treats? Leave a comment below! Written by Sara Lilkas, Marketing Intern  When people ask about my favorite foods my first instinct is to choose apples. But when I say apples I do not only mean the delicious fruit, I’m also including the multitude of apple flavored baked goods, ciders, and the association they have with fall. Growing up in Upstate New York aka Apple Country, I would probably be considered a social pariah if apples were not high on my list of favorite foods. I couldn’t even tell you why I like apples so much since each variety has its own distinct flavor. If I had to pick my favorite varieties they would have to be golden delicious, granny smith, and honeycrisp (so you can see my taste go from very sweet to very tart.) The real reason that I have apples on my mind is the weather is beginning to cool down so in addition to pulling out the scarves and boots, apples will begin to pop up everywhere again (which is fantastic.) What’s even more fantastic is the amount of apples available from local growers. Even though New York State may be known for apples, I have recently learned they are actually grown throughout the Northeastern United States. There are tons of orchards throughout the Northeast and many of them are still family owned and run. Price Chopper works hard to find the best tasting apples from local growers located in various parts of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont (and that’s only including a few of the growers they purchase from.) In this search for the best apples Price Chopper has developed long term relationships with many growers including Sunrise Orchards in Vermont (20 years!) Sunrise Orchards and Roger’s Orchards in Connecticut take great pride in how their apples are grown. Both orchards are certified as Eco Apples™ and have to adhere to strict growing practices in order to receive this certification. The program focuses on the quality of the soil the apples are grown on, and keeping beneficial insects within the environment. As part of this process having as much information about what is going on in the orchard and the plants surrounding the area is essential. By monitoring insect populations, growing conditions, and other factors that are important to the growing process growers can determine whether it is necessary to treat against any unwanted fungus or pest that may be harmful to the apple crop. The Eco Apple™ certification is not given out to every orchard, every year. In order to receive the certification the orchards have to undergo a review by the IPM Institute of North America, to ensure that the growing conditions have been upheld for the year. As I mentioned earlier I really love ciders. Every once in a while I may indulge in a hard cider (my favorite is Woodchuck!), but the typical nonalcoholic fare is my true favorite. There is nothing better than a beautiful fall day with a glass of apple cider. I’ve recently been experimenting with warming apple cider for those days when the first fingers of winter reach into the air. I’ve found warming up apple cider and adding a pinch of cinnamon does the trick! When it comes to apple baking I love the classics. There is nothing better in my mind then a warm slice of apple pie (or a whole apple pie whatever floats your boat). My best friend has recently been trying to teach me how to bake and we decided to start big with the pie. We used this recipe for an apple pie from scratch, but a pre-made or gluten free crust could easily be substituted! How do you enjoy apples in the fall? Share your apple creations on Instagram with #PriceChopper and #Market32!