Autumn: A Season Ripe for Apple Picking

Karen DiDonato ⋅ October 1, 2019

The nights are getting cooler now that it’s autumn. And with cooler temperatures comes ripening apples.

As a child I remember stuffing my newly purchased 1 peck bag with the apples I picked myself off the trees heavy with fruit. I recall wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt topped with a warm flannel shirt that I often later discarded after getting too hot from running around the orchard. Once I had filled my bag and eaten my fill of just plucked apples, I’d almost always require a cup of freshly pressed cider (hot or cold; it never mattered to me) and, if I was lucky, a warm apple cider donut.

In North America, apples grow in all temperate zones, but grow best where there is a cold winter and moderate summer temperatures with a good amount of humidity. In Massachusetts, where I lived until adulthood, there were numerous pick-your-own apple orchards from the greater Boston area all the way to the Berkshires.

I always preferred smaller mom & pop orchards that always had cats walking around and invariably a huge one dimensional red apple cut from plywood in which I would stick my head for silly photo ops. There were also huge commercial orchards, some that cordon off sections as pick-your-own areas.

According to USApple, the national trade association for the U.S. apple industry, apples are grown commercially in 32 states. The top ten apple-producing states are Washington, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, Virginia, North Carolina, Oregon, Ohio, and Idaho.

Lucky for you, apple lover, HCI is happy to help get you to these states (and many more) to pick your own!

Let us know where you’d like to go and we’ll be happy to help you find a clinical or anatomic laboratory contract assignment nearby. Prefer a permanent position? We’ve got that too! Check out our open jobs here.

PS, now that it’s fall, it’s time for your flu shot.