Crisp air means fall is back, and if you have kids, that means back to school−but if you want to feel like a kid again, then it’s apple picking season. The greater New York area offers an abundance of pick-your-own apple farms for those who have a car, can mooch a car, or are willing to rent one for the day. Apple picking doesn’t just mean wandering through row after row of fresh apples, sampling every variety you come across and taking a bushel home to feast on apple pies for a week (at least). It also means corn mazes, hay rides, festivals, pumpkin patches later in the season, and fresh pressed cider for the ride back through the fall foliage.

Corn mazes are a sort of cross between the difficulty in navigating downtown New York due to a complete inability to gauge where you are and … corn. Hurds Family Farm near New Paltz offers a maze so extensive that if you Google their address, the maze can be seen in the satellite image. The maze can be walked in twenty to thirty minutes, and there is also a mini-maze for children.

Hay rides are available at many farms including Prospect Hill Orchards. Many farms also offer kids’ events with face painting, scarecrows, crafts, and even petting zoos. Hurds Farm has Kids’ days on October 10, 11, and 12. Weeds Orchard and Wilklow Orchard both offer petting zoos. Prospect, Weeds and Wilklow are all near each other in the New Paltz area. Some farms offer festivals based around earthy themes, such as the Pumpkin Festival and Grapes Galore Festival at Duboise Farms near Poughkeepsie. Other farms invite bands and feature music, sometimes at additional cost. An hour and a half outside the city in Poughquag, Barton Orchards occasionally features music, and has kids’ activities every weekend.

If you’re not looking to cozy up to a farm animal or to pick your fruit to the tune of loud music, there are tamer options. Dressler Farms and Minard Farms are both in the New Paltz area and offer a quieter apple picking experience. Minard also boasts great views of The Gunks and the Catskills.

Depending on how far you are willing to travel for your personal fall harvest, there are farms in Westchester and Rockland counties, only 45 minutes away from Rockefeller University. However, these tend to get very crowded−often the commute and local roads can get backed up. Lines also become fairly common on fair weather weekends. The next two counties out of the city are a better bet. Farms in Orange and Putnam Counties are on average only one hour away. The farms in Ulster and Dutchess Counties are one and a half to two hours away but offer the best apple picking in the area.

The New Paltz area is well worth a day trip. If you decide to visit a farm in the area you will probably pass another half-dozen farms and produce stands on the way, many selling already picked produce, as well as flowers and preserves. There are also two parks in the area: the Catskills and Minnewaska State park offer an opportunity to walk off the apple pies and enjoy the brilliant fall foliage.

Minnewaska has particularly beautiful walks (come early, as it can get backed up at the entrance on weekends). New Paltz is a big enough little college town to offer you coffee shops and international dinner fare should you choose to eat off a plate instead of a tree. You’ll have plenty of time to decide if you want Thai or pizza, as you crawl along Main Street on your way back to the city.

However, if fall is when you normally head to the Hamptons, there are farms out on Long Island too. Most are located in Suffolk county, at least one and a half hours out of the city, weekend traffic not included. The closest is Richter’s Orchard, in East Northport.

Most area farms offer fuji, gala, crispin, macoun, empire, idared, cortland, McIntosh, and honeycrisp apples which you are welcome to try for free as you pick apples to take home. Some also offer several varieties of pears. Call ahead to check for availability of different varieties and to reserve tickets for events.

For a full(er) listing of orchards and varieties surf over to www.nyapplecountry.com.