Nothing makes me happier then freshly picked apples and cinnamon sugared donuts as the leaves change color. I have a favorite cider mill from my hometown in Michigan and when I moved to Boston I was hoping to find another just as good.
Honey Pot Hill Orchards, located in Stow, MA, is about an hour outside Boston. They offer a petting zoo, hedge mazes, and hayrides. Open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, the orchard offers McIntosh, Spartan, Empire, Liberty, and Cortland apples. Pears can normally be picked as well; however, Honey Pot is all picked out this year.
I visited Honey Pot Hills last year in October and again this past Sunday and my experiences couldn’t have been more different. In October 2015, the weather was colder, the sun was hidden, and the crowd was small; it was comfortable and easy. However, this past weekend was wild.
Our 50-minute drive turned into 3.5 hours before we could even park the car. I think everyone in Mass decided to visit Honey Pot this weekend because traffic was horrible and there was almost no available parking. My friend and I bought an apple-picking bag for $18 and hopped on the hayride that took us deeper into the orchard. It was a beautiful sunny day and kids were having fun.
We wandered to the petting zoo to see pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, and bunnies. Next to the petting zoo was the Farm Store and the Hedge Maze. The Farm Store included pre-picked apples, jams, cider, and tomatoes. I was looking for donuts, but realized there was a separate building with them that I immediately sought out. When I found the line there was about 150 people in it. Long story short, I was unable to purchase donuts. Looking around, we noticed the hotdog/burger line was reasonably short, so we got in and were delighted to be able to purchase cider from the same line.
It was getting late and we still hadn’t picked apples yet. We walked up and down the orchard and found very few apples, I couldn’t believe it! Half the apples we took home were apples we had to pick from the ground because so few apples were left.
The Honey Pot management posted an explanation for the madness over the weekend. On 9/24, they said their donut machine kept breaking which slowed down production and apologized for customers that did not reactive donuts.
“I sincerely apologize for any negative experience anyone had because of our technical difficulties. If it makes you feel better it was not fun for us either!”
That doesn’t actually make me feel better and on 9/25 they gave an explanation for traffic. The usual exit route can’t be used as an exit anymore because the bridge it crosses over is weak.
I was very disappointed during this 6 hour “adventure”, especially since it should have lasted only 3. I didn’t get donuts; it was stressful and I wasn’t even driving. Honey Pot needs to respond with something better than, “If it makes you feel better it was not fun for us either!”
