I’m in the countryside upstate so it only feels right to do very wholesome outdoor activities. And you’re overwhelmed with choice up here; Phoenicia and its neighbouring towns are crammed with trails, lakes and pick-your-own farms.

Despite our bottles of wine last night, Ryan and I were up bright and early and headed to the nearest pick-your-own farm, which was in Stone Ridge. Once there, we grabbed a sack and headed to the apple orchards.

At first the trees seemed pretty bare and a lot of the apples looked very manky, but as we pressed on, we found a much juicier selection – Gala, McIntosh, Honeycrisp, Fuji – alongside pears and even some tomatoes. We snuck tastes of a few to make sure we had the best. Without a doubt, the Gala took the crown – it was crisp, crunchy and so fresh.

We used the ladders to reach the top branches and filled up our sack with various flavors, with the intention of making an apple crumble back at the cabin.

We wandered back to the store, where we eyed pies and took some apple cider to go. As lovely as this place was, I have to say that the staff had no idea what was going on. They didn’t seem to know their apples from their pears.

But not to worry, because this was a great day trip and a perfect way to appreciate the clean air of the countryside. And now, on to making that crumble!