Seattle-area farms for apple picking

Apple picking, updated for 2022: We’re almost to apple season! A couple farms are open while others are waiting for their apples to grow and ripen. Check back often to see when farms will be ready for the harvest.

Everyone should try apple picking. An apple fresh from the tree has a crispness and a complexity in flavor that you never find in a supermarket. And many apple orchards offer varieties of fruit that you’d seldom encounter in the city. Besides, orchards are beautiful places. Muddy (Wear those rubber boots!) and full of farm smells, but gorgeous all the same.

Here are seven farms within three hours of Seattle that give you a chance to pick your own apples. A couple have a harvest window that lasts only a day or a weekend. Others have a range of varieties that keep them open until October.

Bailey Farm

12706 Springhetti Road, Snohomish
(360) 568-8826

For the latest harvest information, check the website.

Driving time from Seattle: 35-50 minutes.

Hours: 8 a.m.-6 p.m. daily for an array of veggies. Honeycrisp apples should be available sometime after Labor Day.

The Farm at Swan’s Trail

7301 Rivershore Road, Snohomish (425) 334-4124

Opening for U-pick and fall festival on September 24

For the latest apple picking information check the farm’s website.

Driving time from Seattle: 45 minutes to 1.25 hours.

Hours: Check the website for when the farm will be open for 2022 picking of Honeycrisp and Jonagold apples.

This farm, a well-known hub of family farm fun (including a 12 acre corn maze replicating the map of Washington State), has an acre of Jonagold and Honeycrisp apples for picking. Fall Harvest Festival begins on September 24.

Jones Creek Farms

32260 Burrese Road, Sedro-Woolley

Open for picking for 2022! See website for the U-pick variety

Driving time from Seattle: 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays through Mondays, August through roughly the end of October (check to be sure).

This Skagit Valley farm grows more than 80 varieties of apples and pears, some familiar and many that are bound to be new discoveries.

Bellewood Acres

6140 Guide Meridian, Lynden 360-318-7720

Open Sept. 3, 2022 for picking! Tsugaru is the first variety to be available.

For the latest harvest information go to the farm’s U-pick page, Facebook or Instagram.

Driving time from Seattle: 2 to 2.5 hours

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday, September and October

This farm has Honeycrisp, Cosmic Crisp, Jonamac, Gala, Jonagold, Belle de Boskoop and Golden Supreme apples in September, and Fuji, Idared, Sonata, Orin, School House Red, Bellewood Prince, Evercrisp and Mountain Rose apples in October.

Stutzman Ranch

2202 Easy St., Wenatchee
(509) 667-1664

For the latest harvest information check the website. Pluots and Asian pears are expected to be available mid-September. Picking details here.

Driving time from Seattle: 2.25 hours to 2.75 hours.

Farm hours: 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily while there is fruit.

This U-pick orchard has Fuji and Golden Delicious apples starting about mid-September. It has other kinds of fruit, including cherries in June, and nectarines, peaches and Bartlett pears later in the summer.

West Valley U-Pick

11901 Zier Rd, Yakima
(509) 945-5406

For the latest information check the website.

Driving time from Seattle: 2.5 to 3 hours.

Hours: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Mid-August to October.

This orchard grows Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp and Blondee apples and a cider press available to use. There is also a variety of other fruit, including Bartlett and D’Anjou pears.