What is Apple Hill and Farm Trails?

You’ll see the signs up and down Highway 50. “Apple Hill ahead.” Along the back roads of El Dorado County you might see location signs that read “Farm Trails Member.”

Apple Hill and Farm Trails are to El Dorado County, what Disneyland is to Anaheim. The farms and ranches are magical places filled with attractions that tug at the heart strings - especially if you grew up or spent your summer or holidays visiting a relative who owned or worked a farm here.

Can you expect to bite into an apple that’s been tenderly plucked from a tree earlier that day? Yup. But you can also expect to taste peaches so ripened by the sun that they melt in your mouth. Or bite into pears that don’t need to sit in a paper bag for a number of days, waiting to grow soft enough to eat.

Apple Hill and Farm Trails are about pies that cool on wire racks, purchased by the public so quickly that before the first batch grows cool, the second batch is being pulled out of the oven. It’s caramel apples and ciders and juices – the likes of which you may never have had. Preserves, syrups and thick cinnamon sauces line the shelves of many of the farms. And once you’ve selected a plate, a stick or bag filled with treats, all that’s left to do is find a shady tree, a grassy spot or an empty picnic table. Close your eyes and listen. In the distance you’ll hear children working their way through a hay maze or laughing as they sit atop a pony. You’ll hear tour bus brakes hissing to a stop, the hydraulic doors flying open and crowds of visitors climbing down, pocket books and a grocery list in hand. They remember the days when an open-air fruit stand was the only place to buy fresh farm products.

Somewhere someone is licking the cinnamon sugar off his or her fingers having just ingested a warm apple/cinnamon donut. Lines of people stand in front of the bakeshop “Order Here” windows, but no one minds the short line, the people they stand with grow to be instant friends. As summer gives way to early fall the ranches and orchards along Farm Trails and in Apple Hill come most alive. But in the spring, cherries bring folks to El Dorado County, while peaches come ripe in early summer. Vegetables are grown by some of the farmers with many of the ranches offering sweet corn, vine ripened tomatoes, fresh green beans, chestnuts, persimmons, zucchini, pumpkins and colorful flower bouquets. You can even dig your own Iris rhizomes or learn the art of Bonsai.

Berry picking begins in the spring and continues during summer. No one walks away without at least two purple fingers. The petting areas are the perfect way to introduce little ones to friendly barnyard critters. Wine tasting continues year round but harvest is in the early autumn. Pumpkin patches and sunflower mazes open in the fall. And come winter, when the days cool way down and a jacket or at the very least, a warm flannel is needed, the Christmas tree growers open their farms, welcoming winter and the holidays.

As you will see, the growers of Farm Trails and Apple Hill are about more than apples. It’s families who invite you to peek into their lifestyle and walk away with a trunk filled with homegrown fruits, baked goods, crafts and memories.

For information on what’s going on where in Apple Hill, call the Apple Hill Growers at (530) 644-7692. For information about the members of Farm Trails, visit the website at www.edc-farmtrails.org.