Many a crisp fall morning growing up, my family and I used to turn off of Orchard Dr. in the family van and slowly made our way up the hill to Showalter’s Orchard. The nostalgia of making applesauce with fresh fruits and drinking cold-pressed apple cider by the gallon filled my head as I made my way up that same hill this past Saturday morning. The small, family-owned orchard sits perched on a hilltop overlooking the valley in full panorama not more than a half-hour drive north from campus.
Approaching the destination, a long row of parked cars extended the overflow parking. A large crowd was there to celebrate the second Saturday out of five in October dedicated to the 21st Annual Harvest Celebration Series. I was excited to share such a special place with my roommate, Jake Myers, junior, who came along with me on this 65 degree morning. Upon opening the car door, my nose told me that our first order of business was to seek out the sweet aroma competing with the scent of mums coming from the greenhouse next door. I assumed the source of the smell to be apple cider donuts, and I began to search for a sign or people holding the telltale white boxes with little grease stains seeping through the cardboard. Entering a partially enclosed dining room with rustic whitewashed hardwood flooring and glass walls, the line of anxious buyers at a small window guided us to take our place behind at least a dozen other customers.
Waiting with anticipation, I decided to order a hot mulled cider in addition to a box of a half-dozen donuts. Balancing our bounties ever so carefully, we slowly made our way to a ledge overlooking the east side of the hill and took a seat to slow down and enjoy the small feast before us.
The apple cider donuts, still warm, of course, from the fryer were every bit as delicious as the name suggests. Soft and moist on the inside, with a slightly-caramelized outer layer covered in cinnamon sugar, they fell apart upon contact with my tongue. The donuts tasted strongly of the spiced apple cider I held in my hand. The mulled cider had hints of other flavors besides apple too, orange first, then, at the end, a little cinnamon and other assorted fall spices for the finishing kick. The combination of donuts with cider is how a beautiful fall day at the orchard should be.
As we sat enjoying the last of our treats and watching people mill around with much the same goal as we had a half-hour before, the pick-your-own booth beside us caught my attention. Feeling tempted by looking out over the rows of red, green, and yellow apples surrounding us from the hilltop, I gave in and we hopped in line to pick a peck of Yellow Delicious, Staymen, and Granny Smith apples.
Walking through the rows of trees, working our way towards the back to start off in hopes of avoiding the picked-through areas, the apples grew larger and larger, and the branches appeared to be struggling to hold the weight of the more densely-clustered fruits. We carefully and thoughtfully filled our bag to the very top, and then stuffed one or two more apples in the meager space that remained. In our search for the perfect apples, we had meandered a good ways down the hill, and now we made our way back up to my car under the strain of apple weight.
The trip would not have been complete without coming home with a gallon of fresh-pressed cold cider so of course we popped inside the shop and did our due diligence before loading up and easing ourselves down the hill and back into town.
Showalter’s Orchard has long been one of my favorite places in the Shenandoah Valley. The family who owns the property are amazing people, the experience of being on top of the hill and wandering through the trees is breathtaking, and of course the abundance of apple products. If you have a little freetime on any Saturday morning through the rest of October, it would be well worth your time to take a drive out into the orchard country and make a stop on the hilltop.
