It was Labor Day, and most of the museums were closed...so here we went to the Apple Country Orchards. Apple Country Orchards is located north of Lubbock, in a little town called Idalou. There are nearly 6000 trees with 30 different kinds.
When we visited, they had four different kinds of apples that you could pick:
Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Ozark Gold, and Melrose. We were given a big bucket with wheels and an apple-picking stick (I forget what they called it). We were told that there are four colors of flag in front of the apple row denoting what type of apple is planted on that row. I don't remember exactly, but it was something like red for Red Delicious, yellow for Golden Delicious, orange for Melrose, and finally green for Ozark Gold. You can check at their website what kind of apples are ready to be picked.
We started eating and picking. I picked Melrose and loved it. My brother ate all different kinds and ate the one he liked one more time. We filled our bucket with autumn apples. It was 59 cents per pound, and we picked $8 worth of apples (now my sister-in-law is thinking about what to do with all those apples).
The Apple Country Orchard also has a lunchroom and country store. When we visited, the lunch was over. The lunchroom serves food Monday to Saturday from 11:30am to 2pm. The day we visited, on Monday, the food of the day was lasagna & cider sourdough bread. The lunch costs $4.95 plus tax, and it was advertised that all meals were served with hot vegetables, fried apples, fresh salads, beverage, and a dessert (German apple cake, baked apple turnovers, and apple puffs are some of the desserts served for lunch). From the Apple Country Orchards' bakery, we bought their famous German apple cake to eat at home (yummy...) The country store had apple butter, applesauce, and apple salsa, which were all tempting.
Their address is: Hwy 62/82, Idalou, TX
Phone: (806)892-2961 or (800) 765-7055