Apple Season Has Arrived at Belleayre: A Cider, Donut and Pumpkin Field Guide

There are two kinds of people in the Catskills in late September. People who say they are going for a scenic drive. And people who are, in fact, going to buy four pounds of apples, a half gallon of cider and however many donuts fit in the car without raising questions at home.

We are the second kind. We have made peace with it.

Here is the honest truth about this stretch of the calendar: the foliage is still warming up, the crowds have not arrived yet, and almost every good thing in the valley is currently coming out of the ground or off a tree. If you have been waiting for the perfect weekend to come up, it is this one and the four that follow it.

Here is where to go.

Pick Your Own Apples About Half an Hour From the Lodge

Maplewood Farm & Orchard in Bovina Center is running u-pick apples and pumpkins on weekends from September 12 through October 12, 10 AM to 4 PM. Honeycrisp, Macintosh and the usual suspects, on 104 acres, with hay wagon rides, gem mining and a farm store stocked with eggs, honey, baked goods and their own maple syrup.

It is the kind of place where you arrive for apples and leave with maple cream you did not plan for and cannot now live without.

A little further out, Sunrise Mountain Orchard in Bloomville also runs pick your own. Worth the drive if you want the orchard mostly to yourself.

One piece of operator advice: go in the morning. Orchards, like restaurants, are best before the rush and slightly picked over after it.

Then the Hard Cider Part

Wayside Cider in Andes is roughly twenty minutes from our front door and does small batch cider from wild, heirloom and dessert apples. Tasting room, kitchen, and a courtyard that welcomes well behaved dogs on leashes.

This is the move after a morning in an orchard. You have already earned it. You have a trunk full of fruit to prove it.

Saturday Mornings Belong to the Round Barn

The Pakatakan Farmers Market sets up inside the historic round barn in Halcottsville, about ten minutes from us, Saturdays from 9 AM to 2 PM through Columbus Day weekend, then 10 AM to 1 PM through Thanksgiving weekend.

Local vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese, honey, maple, baked goods and makers. This is where the donut hunt begins and usually ends. Bring cash and low expectations about self control.

On Sundays, the Phoenicia Farmers Market runs 10 AM to 2 PM at Parish Field through October 25. Same principle. Different valley.

This Saturday: The Cauliflower Festival, Which Is Exactly As Great As It Sounds

Saturday, September 19, the Margaretville Cauliflower Festival takes over Margaretville Village Park from 11 AM to 4 PM. Free admission. Eight minutes from the lodge.

A tractor parade down Main Street opens it at 11 AM with more than twenty tractors and a reigning Cauliflower Queen named Fifi Dupree. There are fifteen food vendors cooking cauliflower every way it can be cooked, twenty five plus craft and farm vendors, live music, baby animals, carnival games and a cauliflower catapult.

I want to be clear that I did not make up the cauliflower catapult.

This year Finch Farm is growing around 300 heads locally, so everything sold is regionally grown. As a chef, that detail is the whole ballgame. As a person, I am mostly here for the catapult.

That night, The Slambovian Circus of Dreams plays an unplugged set at the Phoenicia Playhouse, 7 to 9 PM, $28. Cauliflower by day, cosmic Americana by night. A complete Saturday.

Take the Gondola While It Is Still Running

The Catskill Thunder Gondola runs Saturdays and Sundays, 10 AM to 5 PM, through October 11. Adults $20, seniors and juniors $15, ages four to six $5, under four free with a paid adult.

Right now you get green mountains with the first yellow and orange coming in. In two weeks you get the full show. Both are worth the ticket. Only one of them comes without traffic.

And Then the Big One

Belleayre Fall Festival runs October 3, 4, 10 and 11, 10 AM to 5 PM. Admission and parking are free, which in 2026 feels like a clerical error in your favor.

Live music from noon to 4, foliage gondola rides, more than twenty five local artisans, a Taste of Belleayre menu, Brews & Views for regional craft beer, and family activities all day. There is also a stein holding contest at 1 PM and a pie eating contest at 1:30 PM, in that order, which tells you the schedule was written by someone who understands consequences.

Book early for those weekends. They are our busiest of the fall and they fill.

Where to Eat When You Are Done

Café Marguerite on Main Street in Margaretville. The Print House in Fleischmanns when you want to stay close. Bettina in Phoenicia if you are already down Route 28 for the music.

Or come back, light the fire, open the cider and eat an apple over the sink like a person with nothing to prove.

Base Camp for All of It

Alpine Four Season Lodge sits in Highmount, right at the foot of Belleayre. The orchards, the cidery, the round barn, the festivals and the gondola are all a short drive from your room, and none of them require you to be anywhere at a particular time.

Wake up in the mountains. Pick apples. Drink cider. Ride the gondola. Come home and watch the hillsides change while you decide whether you have room for one more donut.

You do. You always do.

Book your fall Catskills escape directly at www.alpinefourseasonlodge.com

Booking direct means the best rate, no middleman and a real person on the other end of the email. Talk soon.

Daniel & The Crew
Alpine Four Season Lodge 32 Galli Curci Road, Highmount, NY 12441